The Bond that Blood Creates
by TangentTeam
Summary: The Bloody Mist. A brutal time for those from Kiri, and these two brothers are making the best of it the only way they know how. Carnage, death, and taking advantage of those around them. They enjoy the chaos, and there's no way in hell they're going to let it slip from their grasp. Trigger Warning (All of them). Going through editing. (Authors: One & Two)
1. Prologue

TangentOne: Looks like we have a new story, Two.

TangentTwo: Oh boy! The older one is gorgeous~!

TangentOne: What would Nagato think of you saying that?

TangentTwo: He'd probably accept it and move on, hoping that I'd leave him alone.

TangentOne: And would you?

TangentTwo: Absolutely not! I love him too much!

* * *

Kojiro awoke with a frightened gasp, his face and shirt collar drenched in a cold sweat. A recurring nightmare from his past that always plagues his dreamscape being the source of such a rude awakening. It was always of the days when his father, tortured him with varying degrees of intensity and tools for hours on end. However, fortunately for him, it would then end with the brutal slaughter that Kojiro's brother, Kiyoshi, unleashed when he had found out what their dear old dad had been up to.

He clenched his teeth and eyelids shut at the remembrance of the horrible experience that he had to go through. He tightened his fists so hard that he could feel as his nails dug into his skin as he tried to banish them from his mind. It was four years ago. When he was weaker and more susceptible to things that were over his head. He was stronger now, strong enough to make sure that it would never happen to him again. His brother made sure of that.

"The past is the past and shouldn't last." He spoke quietly, weakly recalling the mantra that his brother had taught him whenever he was recovering from the traumatic experience. He may be cold and at times a downright jerk, but at the end of the day, he still cared for him.

Before he could dwell any longer in the prison of his mind that the nightmare had caused for him, Kojiro's thoughts were swept away by a knock at his bedroom door. At this hour it could only be one person.

"Yes, brother?" Kojiro called out to the door his voice slightly weak.

"Get the fuck up, it's your graduation day." Came the call from Kiyoshi through the door followed by the sound of footsteps walking away.

 _But still totally a jerk_. Kojiro thinks with a long-suffering sigh. Accepting his fate, Kojiro begins his morning routine. Slipping on the standard black ninja pants, he pulls a long-sleeved fishnet shirt that fit snugly to his body like a second layer of skin over his head and down over his well-defined torso and arms. Over that he put on a leather sleeveless black jacket that was lightly padded on the shoulders and over his chest and abdomen.

Kojiro stood in front of the full body mirror by the closet door that was opposite to the door to his room and took a good look at his reflection. His right red eye glowed ominously back at him as his left yellow eye radiates a vibrant light. The young boy's black ruffled hair just barely covers his eyebrows and his lithe body structure belied the true strength hidden within him. He looked like a ninja, that's what his brother would almost always tell him, at least. The dual eyed boy was interrupted from looking at himself any longer by his door swinging open violently in the reflection of the mirror. A very pissed Kiyoshi stood in his doorway, chokutō sword drawn as he stands menacingly and glowers at him. Jeez, where's the fire? Kojiro thought idly as he turns to face his elder brother.

"Did. I. Fucking. Stutter?" He says without any killing intent present. He was pretty scary on his own without the need for it. "Hurry it up, idiot or we're going to be late."

However, used to such things coming from his harsh brother as he was, all he did was roll his eyes at him the mirror before turning around. "Actually, I think you might have," Kojiro replies nonchalantly while walking towards his dark-haired sibling with a smirk. "I'm ready anyway, let's go."

Kiyoshi's right yellow eye twitches as he sheathed his blade over his back. Kiyoshi was muscular for his age of fifteen, five years older than his younger brother. Spiky hair propped up by the Mist headband on his forehead and lower face covered by a mask from his shirt. His eyes mirrored Kojiro, opposite color for either eye. He towered over his younger brother, obviously due to age. With a grunt and something about rude little brats, he let Kojiro pass him by before grabbing at his collar and lifting him over his shoulder.

"We're going to be late because you want to priss up like a girl," Kiyoshi explains as he makes his way through their sparse house. Leaping out and onto window into the misty and dreary village known as Kirigakure or also as the Hidden Mist village. Despite what many would like to believe about the perpetually misty village, it had a bit of an amicable air about it. Though, that could be because the people crowding the streets the two younger brothers were leaping above were members of the first caste system that lived closer to the Mizukage tower. The sounds of chatter filled their ears as commerce was being made between vendors and willing fat pursed customers. Raucous laughter erupted from the many mist-nins that made their way towards the tower that rested on the highest platform of the various stairways in the center of the whole village.

Kirigakure was mainly full of cylindrical buildings with vegetation sprouting out from the rooftops that house most of the Kiri population that were divided up into three separate groups due to the politics that govern the first group, called Natives, were part of the first caste system and were highly regarded for the fact that they were part of the family lineage that started from the Hidden Mist. They were given most of the land to live on around the Mizukage Mansion and blocked most of the staircases that would lead directly to the building for security reasons. The second group, called Kins, were members of families that were allied to Kiri during the battlefield of the wars that they had faced. They were given the land surrounding the Natives, could live within the Native territory, or even up in the mountains if they so wished too. Kojiro and Kiyoshi are a part of this caste.

The last group, called Serfs, were members of families that were defeated on the battlefield and were annexed into the village. Because of the high chance of revolting against the village, they were put into the cylindrical buildings to better surveillance all of them into one place to better see what they're doing while the ones who could mold chakra were labelled as ninjas and were put on the most perilous of missions to keep them from being unoccupied in their time and try to plan a revolution against the Mizukage. The only way to even try and move up a caste for them was that if they were to prove their loyalty which, was at least eight to twelve years of successful missions. Only a small handful was able to do that.

Kiyoshi took one of the many ninja highways through the Native district until he came upon the Academy which was actually on the fifth out of the six landings on that route. The Academy is a tall and robust cylindrical building with dreary concrete walls that blends in with gray wispy trails of the everlasting mist that have been apart of the country for years. Surrounding it is a large spacious area with different smaller facilities connected to the main building used for different things such as the dojo for taijutsu, an indoor swimming pool for water walking exercise, et cetera. On either side of the large platform are two staircases that to the Shinobi Archive (on the left) or the Mizukage Mansion (on the right).

After making it to the landing, the elder brother of the duo sets the younger male down in front of the door that leads to the dojo in which they would house the genin exams. "Go get your headband," Kiyoshi states with a cool tone to his voice, knowing that his brother would excel. "I'll be watching."

"All I have to do is kill a classmate, right?" Kojiro asks for clarification staring at the door in front of him with a determined gleam in his mismatched eyes.

"Yes," Kiyoshi replies shortly. Though, he gains a kind of glint to his red eye as he smiles a bit. "But slaughtering them like I did makes a lasting impression."

Raising an eyebrow, Kojiro stares at his brother questioningly. "Is that why they call you 'Hell Incarnate'?" He asks.

Snorting, the mist nin rolled his eyes at a joke that only he seemed to understand. "It's one of them." shoving his brother more towards the door he gave him a look. "Now go on then, you brat."

Kojiro just shrugs at him. "Whatever then." He says before pushing the door open and makes his way down the hallway towards the arena and away from his already Jōnin brother.

As the young boy makes his way down, he sees a few of his instructors, who gave him a weary look, some had a frightened look in their eyes before turning sharply away from him. For some unknown reason, to him at least, Kojiro's instructors are constantly afraid of him. Flashbacks from a brother, mayhaps. And honestly, if some of the tales he's heard were correct, then maybe they should be afraid that he could be just like him. Though unfounded as they were… or were they? He shakes those thoughts away, not really wanting to be thinking about morals at a time like this.

He continues his trek through the long hallways until he comes across the doors to the training gym. An inside field used for graduation, taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu, and bukijutsu. He steps inside and notices all of his fellow classmates that he had gotten to know over the past three years lined up beside the pool. Walking towards them he made his way towards the end of the line and stood with the rest of them.

Once Kojiro had made his presence known, the man who stood in front of them took action."Ok brats listen up." Their academy instructor, Tetsuya Mimashiro, spoke up plainly, a sharp edge to his voice, gaining the students attention. He stands with a professional air about him, his arms behind his back and his posture straight and serious. "The test that you are about to partake in is going to be one on one and will all be to the death." He noticed the nervous look of some of the kids in the line and his eyes narrowed slightly at the looks. "You're probably wondering why we are doing this? Why fight comrades and kill them when we're supposed to be fighting with them. Well, the answer is simple…

"We are not like the other villages. We, much more than anyone else, know what the shinobi life entails. It is full of fighting, death, and more often than not. Betrayal." He looked dead into the eyes of the kids there, lingering on Kojiro's own for a little bit. "You never know when someone, your comrade included, will turn their back on you and the village and kill you. It has happened before in many nations and half the time during the reveal of the betrayal you may freeze up in shock or may try to talk them out of betrayal, and in so doing… you're probably going to die."

A couple of gasps sounded out and he glared at those who had done so "Shut up maggots." he hisses, causing them to stiffen up. "Think of this exam as a way to sharpen up your killer instinct. Because without it, in this world and this life we live in, without it you will die."

After he finished that sentence, he paused, letting the silence be the time that they think of what he had just shared and have the words sink into their young minds. "To be a ninja is to kill or to be killed. To be a shinobi, we must adapt and endure whatever is put in front of us. Even when put into that situation." with one more slight pause and another look at his students, he nods his head. He gestures to the jonin lining the walls on the high balconies above them. "These are jonin who will be evaluating and watching your every move. They might take you on as an apprentice, depending on your performance so I suggest making a good showing."

Noticing the mix of nervous and steely glints in the eyes of most of the students he nods his head. "Now, since you all understand what must happen let's start the exam." He moved the students to a far-off box where they would sit in to observe without talking to any of the jonin to chat up one of them and influence them in any way possible. He kept two students that Kojiro himself had vaguely remembered, there was the blue-haired girl named Sora Tachibana and the brown-haired boy who was named Riku Nomisune.

They both stepped to the center of the room onto the pool as he raised his hand up. "With this, I commence the start of the Genin Exams. First match, Sora Tachibana vs Riku Nomisune." With a chop, he started the battle. "Hajime!"

* * *

Five minutes later…

Only five minutes after the exams had started, a strong stench of blood, gore, and human excrement fill the room and the once crystal clear pool, had been dyed a deep red.

"Bloody people can't kill right," Kojiro mutters detachedly as he looks down at his fallen opponent with a blank look in his eyes. he then proceeds to dislodge his ninjatō from his now deceased classmate's body, flicking the blood off of it and then placed it in the sheath on his right hip.

He surveys the room, noting the Chūnin proctors in the observation deck hanging over the gym who was eyeing him with either look of amazement or horror and he also managed to spot his brother, who was busy chatting up one of the cuter proctors.

The idiot has always had a slight weakness to cute girls. He thought offhandedly.

Kojiro tunes out the thought of his brother and his sloppy love life and turns back to his sensei who stood before him. He yells aloud in a booming voice and calls out the names of the other kids who passed by winning their fights. They all lined up on the bloody water next to him in the same line as they were in last time.

He congratulated them on not dying and began telling them their future as a Mist ninja and what it would entail. His classmates all had a relieved look in their eyes and their shoulders sagged upon hearing they had finally passed the academy and would have the chance to become a proper ninja of the Mist.

Guess they have the misfortune of not dying by their opponents hands. Kojiro thought, still in a state of detachment. Let me rectify that.

Kojiro releases his killing intent to the fullest extent causing all eyes in the dojo to turn to him, even those who've passed as they looked on in fear as the killing intent proved to be more potent than any of them had ever sensed. With a blank look in his eyes, Kojiro smiles, bloodthirsty as it was, showcasing a row of spiked teeth and his eyes turned pure yellow. His pupils were lost in the color, along with the whites.

"Akutō Release: Heaven Path." He breathes out.

Kojiro could feel his brothers gaze snap to him, and he could see in his mind's eye the pure elation his brother felt at this turn of events. The now yellow-eyed boy could swear he felt a hand on his back and a sultry, almost pleading whisper in his ear, telling him to slaughter everyone present. He could hear all of their talking. The jonin and the instructor that is. Telling him to stand down, telling him to stop. But he just tuned them out. He didn't really care much for people telling him what to do. Not anymore...

Kojiro's black bladed ninjatō began to glow a slight yellow color before he struck out.

"Heaven Path: Swift Strike!" He roared, switching his grip to a backhand and lunging at the graduates.

Each one took a battle stance, but they were already tired and couldn't block the blinding speeds shown by him. One by one, heads fell off of shoulders, the cleanest of cuts possible. Their blood spurting from the necks showered Kojiro in the most satisfying way. Strike after strike they all fell and before he knew it himself, he had killed at least thirteen graduates. Grinning, he turned to the rest of the class and began his ruthless attack once again.

Kiyoshi was beyond ecstatic, his brother was proving himself useful without a shadow of a doubt. Every proctor present in the room with him was staring at the battlefield below, some even showed fear for the future. Most of them who were there had attended Kiyoshi's own graduation exam, and they managed to catch a few glances of him and his excitement out of the corners of their eyes, and shivered where they stood as they remembered what had happened and bore witness to 'Hell Incarnate'. The new ones who were there, mainly because Kiyoshi had killed a few of the old proctors, stared open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the brutal display.

Kojiro, on the other hand, had almost no regard for the lives lost. His own adrenaline was pumping, goading him, pushing him to kill more people and no other thought enveloped his mind as he went on to do what he was bred for. He stared at the remaining five potential graduates. They were his age, ten maybe eleven, he smiled gleefully and his eyes changed to pure red.

"Akutō Release: Hell Path," He whispered. "Hell Path: Brutal Strike!"

He reversed his grip on the blade so the flat side would connect first, and leaped forward to the nearest child. A girl his own age, Hinamori Sato if memory serves correct, that he had spoken to often. They shared lunch a few times and had a decent enough friendship. He swept the backside of his sword from one ear to the other, crushing the bone and causing a massive amount of blood to leap from the wound. She died instantly.

His attention changed to the nearest victim, cowering in a corner. Kojiro could smell the shit in his pants, and it disgusted him. He forgot about the useless corpse on the floor and lunged toward him, swinging a downward strike and crushing his skull from the top down.

The person furthest from him tried to escape through the main entrance of the gym, but a kunai through his skull stopped him dead. Literally. Kiyoshi smiled at his brother from the stands and called out to him.

"And I thought I wouldn't get to have any fun." He said sweetly grinning like a maniac.

Kojiro tsk'd, and moved on to the remaining contenders. One of them was a clan heir, he knew this from the child's family jutsu and constant bullying of the other children. He smiled again, thinking there might be a challenge for his next attack. He was sorely disappointed when the child guts himself for an honorable death instead of a slaughter. Kojiro sighed and looked at the last victim.

"Well, since you've already ruined my slaughter, you may as well have this pathetic thing too," Kojiro calls to his brother, stopping the chakra guiding the hell path. His eyes then start to revert back to their standard colors.

"Oh, goodie." The older of the two, spoke as he started to feel the rush of chakra running through his coils, signifying the initial response of the activation. "Akutō Release: Hell Path!" He called out, his eyes turning pure red. "Let the fun begin!"

Kiyoshi flickered through forty plus hand seals in a second before calling out the name of his technique. "Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!" Before anyone can say anything, a dragon made of scarlet water, condensed from the pool that the fights had taken place, roared to life. Every Proctor in the room held their breath, knowing full well they can't stop Kiyoshi or this attack and knew with certainty that the recipient is as good as dead. The Chūnin proctor he was talking up visibly recoils and takes a few steps away from the apparent madman.

The dragon lunged forward with a coiled strike and bolted faster than lightning. In a mere three seconds, that entire exchange was over. Half of the gym has been reduced to rubble, and the only survivor for this graduation was Kojiro. The two brothers smirked at each other, knowing full well this was a productive day.

Kojiro stood tall, pride leaking from his form and hubris clouding his mind as he sheathed his weapon after flicking off the blood. All he could think is that he lived up to the expectations set out for him, and that's all that matters. The headband means nothing to him. This village means nothing to him. Only his own family matters and the only family he has is his brother.

Kiyoshi was full of pride, but on top of that, he was reigning in his bloodlust. All the death that happened today was his own blood doing. He wanted to participate more than he did, and his brother knew it. He was glad that Kojiro allowed him a bit of fun, the fact that he had is making his bloodlust easier to control. If he had it his way, all of the proctors would be dead by now.

Snatching a headband of the nearest proctor, coincidentally being the girl he had talked up before the bloodbath, he rubs at it a bit with his sleeve wiping off some of the bloody water, and jumps down to the ground level of the dojo. He walked up to brother with a Cheshire grin on his face as everyone watched the two with fear within their eyes. Whether he noticed or cared, was something that no one could even fathom.

"Here you go little bro." He throws the battle-worn headband towards Kojiro who catches it mid-air with a frown on his face.

"Thanks, but no thanks." He retorts with a roll of his eyes. "I wanted my own headband. Not some shitty Chūnin's." He ignored the indignant squawk of the Chūnin who was watching from the balcony.

"Suck it up, if you want your own then go get one," Kiyoshi replied easily, stepping forward to ruffle the hair of his younger brother.

Swiping his brother's hand off his head with a scowl, Kojiro leaped up to the observation deck and threw the headband back at the Chūnin proctor who reached out and grabbed it back. Once he did that, he was going to make his way down, but his brother had body flickered behind him in a frivolous display of using ninja skills.

Before Kojiro knew what had happened, Kiyoshi picked him up by the collar of his shirt. "Nice try, you little shit." He says cockily, before throwing him over the deck back to the blood-soaked pool below.

Kojiro lands on his shoulder and rolled up to his feet in a swift motion, thankful that he had been somewhat prepared enough to channel chakra throughout his body to stay on the water. Though he did grumble when he noticed that a significant portion of his body became soaked in blood.

The heterochromatic youth glared up at his older brother heatedly. "I just wanted a headband!" He calls up.

Kiyoshi sighs with a shake of his head, grumbling something about ungrateful little brothers who hogged all the killing and wouldn't accept his gracious gift given to him by his dear elder brother, before turning to the other proctor holding the graduate headbands expectantly. The Chunin started to sweat a bit and (even though he would later deny the claim) his body started to shake involuntarily.

When the Chūnin made very little effort to move, Kiyoshi groaned about useless chunin (he had a lot to complain about regarding useless ninja) and strode over in a huff. He grabbed all eighteen of them off the man's case next to him. He then threw them over the ledge at the poolside nearest to his brother with a slight amount of malice.

"Take your pick, no one else needs one." He yells down, walking off with an annoyed expression.

Kojiro chuckles or at least tries to. It ends up sounding more like a giggle from his pre-pubescent voice. He walks towards where the headbands had landed and looked through them before picking up the cleanest one, and ripped off the metal protector from the band. He unscrewed the hand screws on the back and pierced through his weapon sash, screwing it back on. It laid just left of his waist, in front of sword sheath.

Kojiro began walking to the main entrance that miraculously survived the water dragon, ignoring the looks continued being sent his way. He worried about where his brother walked off to because an annoyed Kiyoshi isn't a good thing. Someone usually dies, and even if in this village it's considered a normal occurrence, he normally goes a little overboard with his release. Slipping through the dojo entrance, Kojiro strode through the halls of the school that he had spent a hellish amount of hours trying to cram and learn the various amount of things in and headed back to the front of the academy finally leaving the hellhole of school life.

The newly minted genin looked around the platform and had quickly spotted Kiyoshi who was standing at the edge of the stairs that lead back to the village, tapping his foot impatiently. The heterochromatic youth winces a bit at the expression on his elder brother's face, a memory from his past, His brother appeared out of the front doors looking slightly worried, and Kiyoshi couldn't imagine why. He pushed it to the back of his mind when Kojiro immediately brightened at the sight of him.

"Took you long enough. We have a mission." Kiyoshi says instantly, bringing Kojiro to attention.

"'We'?" Kojiro repeats confused as he raises an eyebrow curiously. "I just became a Genin."

"Well, I do." The older boy interrupts with a sigh falling soon after. "You're coming with me. No arguments," His tone took a darker and more serious turn that causes Kojiro to stiffen up slightly. "We've had reports of a missing-nin near our western border, I've been selected to go take care of this issue. I'm taking you with me so you can get some battle experience." With a wolfish grin, he gave his younger brother a thumbs up. "It'll look good on your track record, Chūnin is going to be quick for you if you stick with me."

With a smirk on his face, he shrugs his shoulder lightly before he walks over towards his elder brother. "Well okay then. Seems like a plan, though I don't know what you're going to do when the Mizukage hears of this." After bringing this up Kiyoshi just shrugs his shoulder signifying that he didn't really care. Rolling his eyes at his brother's lackadaisical disregard for the higher up's look on the involvement of a green genin, he turned serious. "When do we leave?" Kojiro asks.

"An hour ago." He states bluntly, causing the younger brother to sweatdrop. "I was actually supposed to leave before graduation." Kiyoshi sighs, clearly thinking this is bullshit.

"I would say that surprises me," Kojiro shakes his head tiredly before eying Kiyoshi. "but then I'd be lying," Kojiro replies, earning a smack on the back of the head.

"Shut up and start moving." Kiyoshi orders as he starts making his way down the stairs and into the village.

Kojiro follows close behind a small smile on his face as he walks close to him, a promise of not wanting to disappoint his brother lingering within his mind even though he's tired.

* * *

The two brothers walked through a large port town on the western border saying nothing. Kiyoshi had his eyes closed, using his innate chakra sensing abilities to search for anyone with a ninja-level chakra network while Kojiro kept a sharp eye on their surroundings in case of an ambush or any suspicious persons that his brother didn't manage to pick up. Though, this town is filled to the brim with civilians and very rarely do the brothers find a fellow shinobi in their midst. So the two kept up their search, going in for the long haul.

It was about twenty minutes later (and also mindless productive wandering around the many streets of the town) that it hit them at the same time. It was over in the red light district the next street over where Kiyoshi and Kojiro had both sensed a larger chakra presence then what they had gotten used to amongst the many civilians The brothers look at each other and nod at each other in silent agreement, (though Kojiro noted a hint of a smile on Kiyoshi's face that he immediately forced himself to forget). They jumped onto the nearby rooftop, startling quite a few of the pedestrians and quickly made their way to the roof next to the whore house where they had felt their target reside in.

Kiyoshi stands to his full height and smiles brightly."Alright, he's an A-ranked missing-nin." He says, a glint Kojiro knows all too well in his red and yellow eyes. "He might put up a fight, so stay back for a while until I say it's okay to fight. Though, if you can't help but kill a couple whores, then go right on ahead." He finishes though there was a tinge of remorse in his voice that Kojiro just rolled his eyes.

Kojiro stares ahead with narrowed and focused eyes, taking this much more seriously than his experienced brother. It's his first mission, and there's no way in hell would he disappoint his brother. On top of that, he can't really stand the thought of someone hurting his only remaining family he actually cares about. Kiyoshi notices the stern expression on his brother's face and shrugs.

"He's A-ranked, sure, but he's not going to lay a hand on me." Kiyoshi tries his best to console him, completely missing the mark.

"Wait… what?" The youngest of the two asks nonchalantly, a raised eyebrow in Kiyoshi's direction before turning back to the building next to them. "Oh, you thought I was worried about you? No, that guy's dead whether he knows it or not. I'm more worried about failing the mission, not about you getting hurt." He explains, thankful that he had managed to direct the conversation away from his emotions.

Kojiro didn't notice the twitching of his older brother's eyes as the raven-haired Jonin glared at the back of the green genins head. "Ah, well." He grumbles under his breath before his eyes hardened. "Damn fucking right." And with that, Kiyoshi takes off and jumps off the side of the building. As he flies through the air, he unsheathes his chokutō with a bloodthirsty grin on his face.

Kojiro watches as his brother flies through the air and, feet first, crashes through a window on the second floor of the whore house. He sighs in exasperation and grumbles something about impatient, adrenaline junky brothers before he leaps down to the ground, and casually walks towards the building and, using his chakra to stick the side, walks to the broken window.

Kiyoshi stares at the situation in front of him with a crinkled nose. A man with short slick black hair and a light brown complexion to his disturbingly well-toned back muscle and other members, has his back turned to him, but he could easily tell that he is sweating like a pig on top of a small woman with burgundy hair and brown eyes. At first, she was shocked by his entrance as she stared at him over the man's shoulder, but that soon turned into a mighty unpleased scowl on her face. Kiyoshi, however, remained optimistic and figured that it could have been from either the window breaking, t the man on top of her, or the awful stench permeating the room. Probably all three.

"Do you need any help, miss?" Kiyoshi asks her sarcastically. Her eyes light up on the offer, but then she soon realizes he's joking and flops down on the bed with distinct dissatisfaction.

The man on top slowly looks over his shoulder at the newcomer, cursing his luck at the fact he had gotten caught with his pants down (literally and figuratively) before he blinked a bit in confusion. He was expecting someone a little older, heck even someone who looked at least in their twenties. His fears of the new person are abashed when he sees how young and inexperienced he looks.

"Who the' fuck 'er you?" The man asks with a heavy accent, a narrowed gaze of curiosity in his gray eye.

"Well, I have many names." He starts off with a semi-dramatic name, but that was quickly destroyed. "Cunt, Shit-Cunt, Fuck-Cunt, Thunder-Cunt, Cunt-Cunt. Well, a lot of them are about cunts. You get the point." Kiyoshi shrugs his shoulder in nonchalance while the two other occupants stare at him in confusion.

"What th' fuck are you talkin' aboot?" He asks with spittle flying out of his ugly fat mouth as he turns away from the woman completely, fisits clenched and his muscles flexing in an act of intimidation.

At this point, Kojiro steps through the window wondering what's happening and why there isn't the familiar scent of death floating about when he sees the naked man's front, a look of horror passes by his eyes in a quick flash before he pushes it back and swallows the vomit that had threatened to spew out. For an A-ranked ninja, he sure was one ugly son of a-

"Well, you see." His brother starts, drawing Kojiro's attention to his elder sibling. "My real name is Kiyoshi." Soon, a bloodthirsty grin came upon his face. "Some people call me 'Hell Incarnate' though." He finishes with a flippant wave of his black bladed sword.

At that name drop, the supposed 'A-ranked ninja' that this man was supposed to be, increases his sweat production a good threefold. And the smell had gotten even worse… was that urine they smelled?

"Hell… Incar-" His head flopped off of his shoulders before he could finish repeating what was said. A bloody chokuto embedded into the wall just above the prostitute's head.

"I don't know why I was worried." Kojiro blandly states over the screaming of the whore as he shakes his head.

That was pathetic, he probably just stole some village secrets or something. No way it would be that easy."

The whole house was immediately alerted by the woman screaming against the wall. A few brave people decided to check up on the screaming and promptly died quickly by flying kunai, which were thrown by Kiyoshi. He looked less pleased by the outcome than Kojiro himself was. And a less pleased Kiyoshi means-

"Oh for fuck's sake, shut up!" Kiyoshi yells and promptly stabs the whore in the heart, silencing her except for the obligatory gurgling of blood.

A sigh escapes his lips as he summed up the entire experience. "Well that was uneventful, I really thought this would be harder."

"Honestly, I'm a little bored," Kiyoshi replies, cleaning his blade off as he hears more people coming.

The two brothers survey the room one final time, noting nothing of real interest and promptly jumped out the window they came in from. Kojiro looks to his brother who is flying through hand seals at a rapid rate. He kinda figured this would happen.

"Akutō Release: Hell Path." Kiyoshi began his chant, his eyes turning pure red, finishing with, "Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"

A dragon of pure fire flew out of his mouth, engulfing the whole whorehouse in glorious flames. People inside the building started rushing out, a few naked, screaming their heads off bloody murder. The two brothers just stand on a nearby rooftop and watch as the home burnt down to ashes, collapsing roofs and all. The brothers just smiled, delighting in the fact that they had caused the carnage and had saved themselves from a boring end.

This is what happens when you grow up during the bloody mist era.

"…You do know that the Mizukage will probably dock pay right?"

"Kojiro?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut the fuck up."


	2. Chapter One: Bloodlust

TangentOne: You know, Two, I'm pretty interested in this story.

TangentTwo: Kiyoshi is a great human being, I agree.

TangentOne: That's not what I was saying at all.

TangentTwo: It's what I was saying, though.

* * *

"Kiyoshi." Kojiro whispers.

The brothers are high in the trees above a common trail for trading caravans. Unless there were shinobi in the caravan, and damn good ones, they wouldn't be able to find the brothers in their hiding spot.

"What?" Kiyoshi angrily whispers back. They're supposed to stay quiet, and Kojiro made that difficult.

"He's watching us." Kojiro answers, body flickering away to another tree-top.

Kiyoshi is quick to follow, leaving no traces they were ever there behind. Kojiro points to a spot with his eyes, knowing his brother will follow his gaze. Kiyoshi struggles for a few seconds to find the disparity, but once he notices it, it's glaringly obvious there's someone watching them.

"Heaven or Hell?" Kojiro asks blandly.

" _Hell._ " Kiyoshi seethes out, anger permeating through his previous calm.

As Kiyoshi begins the ritual, Kojiro remembers the issues his brother has been having with stress. It's been a rocky road for the younger brother, one thing he's certain of is that he's become very good with talking a situation down. Kiyoshi has been in a bit of a slump, and it's been causing him issues on missions and with others, and his only coping mechanism is to lash out.

* * *

 _Kiyoshi's eyes are solid red, his killing intent is flooding the nearby area. The ten ANBU-nin facing him are from an unknown source, as they have no defining features. Yet, they've knocked Kojiro unconscious with a surprise attack leaving him without his brother. His blood is boiling, his eyelids are twitching, and the only thing he can think about is murdering the ten in front of him for daring to injure his family._

" _Water Release: Great Waterfall!" He roars, flying through the hand seals in less than three seconds._

 _An absolutely astonishing amount of water erupts from the lake the brothers were camped near, and jets forward in a masterful display of skill and chakra control. Only two of the enemy-nin were able to dodge the attack, and those that were hit were launched far and wouldn't be coming back to the battle in good condition, or at all._

 _The two shinobi that dodged the jutsu started a relentless taijutsu attack. Either their info on the targets were wrong, or they were very confident in their abilities to the point of stupidity. Both brothers can use ninjutsu very well, most of their fights end as soon as they begin with the ridiculous power they can summon with it. However, they're Kiri-nin, meaning bukijutsu is second nature to them._

 _Kiyoshi draws his chokuto as the closest enemy-nin lunges at him, in a few quick strokes the ANBU was caught off guard and dismembered. Of course, it is never that easy with ANBU, and the shadow clone Kiyoshi dismembered poofed out of existence._

" _I'm impressed, Kiyoshi-san. I was told your eyes were a dōjutsu." The original ANBU said._

" _You must be Konoha-nin, then. All you fuckers enjoy talking during fights, it's not a dōjutsu you fuck." Kiyoshi replied, seething._

 _He sprints towards the furthest of the two ANBU who is running to face him in close quarters._

" _It's rude not to talk." The ANBU replied from behind Kiyoshi._

" _Fuck you." Kiyoshi spat._

 _The two ANBU have Kiyoshi cornered in a pincer, but Kiyoshi has dealt with worse. The ANBU draw kunai and rush forward at the same time, when they reach their target, he jumps middair and dodges the attacks. He throws three kunai, two at the talker, and one at the other. All kunai miss, but they serve their purpose and allow Kiyoshi the time to body flicker behind the talker._

 _Kiyoshi doesn't miss a beat, immediately stabbing the ANBU in the back, through the kidney. The blood spurting from his back coats Kiyoshi's garb in hot crimson, earning a gleeful smile from the man. Swiftly retracting his blade, he turns his attention to the seemingly unaffected enemy left. Another ANBU showed up, bloody and beaten from the pounding of the water jet. The two enemies whispered to each other, and body flickered away._

 _Kiyoshi wanted to chase them. He wanted to kill them, to rip their throats out and gut them. To kill them, their families and everything they stand for, but his immediate concern was his unconscious brother. A quick swipe of his blade and a body flicker to his brothers body left him assured he was alive, and safe._

 _First their father, now some Konoha-nin. Kiyoshi promised himself then and there, he would never allow anyone to touch his family again._

* * *

Ever since that day, Kiyoshi has been different. That was three years ago, and the two brothers are fifteen and twenty now. Both feared hunter-nin for Kiri. Kojiro has been worried since then, though. Kiyoshi stays up too late, and goes to bed too early. He eats little and his attention is tunnel visioned on any task he sets himself too. He's become a bit reckless, and a danger to himself and to others around him. Not that he wasn't before, but now it's unpredictable.

As the two brothers lose themselves in the fight before them, they think the same thoughts.

 _Is my brother safe?_

It's all they can think, for different reasons, but the same thought nonetheless. The A-ranked missing-nin they are hunting flies through a set of seals and the ground immediately starts to shift. The once rough and solid earth has turned into sticky and malleable mud. The brothers jump to the tree branches before they got stuck, making it much more difficult for them to fight. Kiri-nin are used to ground or water fights, trees are not on their list of most common battlegrounds.

Regardless, both brothers are not letting this useless target get the better of them. Both of their eyes flare slightly as they run through hand seals. Kiyoshi gathers fire from the depths of his being, whilst Kojiro gathers wind around him. When they finish with their hand seals, the missing-nin makes his move. Lunging forward to catch the brothers off-guard to try and let the chakra they've gathered strain their system more.

The two smile, they both know this as his last moments. The wind and fire respectively turn into their own elemental dragons, and then shimmer into one another. The result was a raging storm of fire in the form of a dragon. With a blinding amount of speed, the dragon rushes forward headfirst into the missing-nin's body. As the two bodies collide, an ear deafening explosion surrounds them. A few trees catch on fire, and the mud on the ground reverts back to soil.

Kojiro sees a faint flash of light fall to the ground, and moves forward to retrieve the object. He leans down and picks up the headband just as his brother body flickers to his side.

"He was our most difficult fight in a long time, brother." Kojiro comments, pocketing the headband.

"Still wasn't much of one. At least he didn't talk." Kiyoshi replies flippantly.

The two brothers smirk, and take off in the direction of home to report a mission complete.

* * *

Two Days Later

The brothers enter Kiri without any problems, and head straight for the ANBU headquarters. At least, what was supposed to be the headquarters. In reality it was just the upper floors of the mission tower. Everyone in Kiri knew where the ANBU slept and took their missions. That information was never revealed to enemies though, it was Kiri's secret. Even if the masses hated the Mizukage, even if they hated the Ninja, they knew it would only end badly for everyone if that secret got out.

Kiyoshi walked forward in the mission hall for ANBU, and very tactfully threw the headband at the mission handler. He caught it easily, took one look at it and nodded.

"Good job, Kawaguchi-san." He says under his breath deep in paperwork.

Kiyoshi grunts at the sound of his family name and moves to the door in the far corner of the room. The brothers have a day off, since they just cleared a mission. Kojiro follows easily, and once they get to a room with their family name on the sign, they walk in. The siblings would have stayed in their own home if they could, but being in ANBU that's not an option for them.

Kiyoshi quickly moves to the bathroom first, going for a quick shower and bath. Kojiro accepts that and jumps on his bed, laying down. His thoughts would be racing, but they've been running for the whole day, all he can think of is rest. His eyes shut, and he drifts off.

After a good thirty minutes Kiyoshi comes out of the bathroom garbed in a towel. He notices Kojiro passed out on the bed and chuckles to himself. He put on a clean suit that mirrored Kojiro's attire without the fishnet and his facemask. He leaves a note, well a kunai, and takes off. The kunai symbols to Kojiro if he wakes up that his brother is away and will be back shortly.

Kiyoshi takes the ninja highway to a shadier part of Kiri. The Red Light District. He lands on the streets when he reaches it, and moves through with memorized ease to his favorite brothel. Taking his steps in, he's immediately beset by the Matron, the owner. She smiles at him politely and bows slightly.

"Welcome back, Kiyoshi-sama." She says eloquently.

Kiyoshi grunts, pointing to the list the matron has in her hands.

"Anyone new?" He asks brusquely.

"As a matter of fact, I believe we do." She replies, bringing the list to her face. "As it so happens, she is free, too."

"Great, she'll do fine." He says quickly.

"You don't want to see her first?" The Matron questions.

"Is she ugly?" He asks.

"...No?" The Matron replies, caught off guard.

"Then she'll do." Kiyoshi promises.

The Matron shrugs with a smile, and calls for her. The new girl shows up and whisks Kiyoshi away for a night of fun.

* * *

Kojiro awakes at sunrise, the sun glistening through his blinds. He knows his brother isn't here from his sensing ability. He sees the Kiri issued kunai on his brothers bed and sighs. Normally that means he went out to fuck some poor whore. Unfortunately, that never ends well for the brothel worker.

He then notices the rank smell in the room and questions it. As he sniffed himself he nearly puked, apparently not washing for a week on a mission makes you very fresh smelling. He quickly and efficiently takes care of those needs and relishes in the clean smell at the end. Kojiro donned his uniform and ninjatō, and left the apartment with the kunai. If Kiyoshi comes back without the kunai being there, he'll know his brother is out.

Kojiro walks through the upper floors of the mission tower and comes to the elevator. He presses the call button and waits patiently for the elevator to open. When it does, he notes the absolutely poor state of Kiyoshi in the elevator.

"You look worse than elephant shit, what happened?" Kojiro comments lightly, handing Kiyoshi's kunai back.

"I had a lot of fun!" Kiyoshi replies chipperly, drunk off his rocker.

"Have you even slept?" Kojiro questions.

"Nope!" Came the reply.

A snicker from a door frame down the hall made Kiyoshi red hot in anger, with the kunai in his hand he bolts, or tries to, to the voice. Screaming bloody murder and curses at the person who would mock him, he missed. The kunai lodged itself in the closed door and he started banging at it with his limbs.

"For fucks sake." Kojiro whispers, striding to his brothers side.

"Let me in you fuck!" Kiyoshi screams.

Kojiro stopped at his brothers side, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Go get some sleep, you need it." Kojiro says firmly.

"Fuck that, I need to kill this fuck!" Kiyoshi replies heavily slurring his words.

At his incessant screaming, he threw up. Stopping the knocking and yelling. Kojiro picks his brother up and holds him with one arm, directing him back to their room. He left the kunai in the door, as a reminder to the person inside to not fuck with Kiyoshi. Or rather, because he was lazy. Either way it's there now.

Kojiro opens the door to their room and drags his brother to his bed. Setting him on it gently as he dry heaves. The younger brother has dealt with this before, he swiftly moves to the bathroom and fills a cup with water. He brings the cup back to Kiyoshi who drinks it greedily. Having something to throw up is better than nothing.

This situation continues for an hour or so before Kiyoshi passes out. Kojiro sighs and lays a blanket over his brother lazily. Kiri is notorious for being cold, but the inhabitants never complain about it. It's in their blood to be warm, even the civilians are warm enough with their own body heat to walk around without jackets. Outsiders hate Kiri, if not for the ruthless actions, then for the cold.

Looking at the clock above their window, Kojiro notes it's only around midday. He leaves a kunai just in case his brother wakes up, along with another cup of water, and takes off.

* * *

Kojiro strides into the academy, eyes searching the passerbys for any indication of skill. The Chūnin instructors are void of it, otherwise they'd already be Jōnin at their age. He barges into the next graduating class and the Chunin instructor looks at him warily. She was there for his graduation, and was almost in a relationship with his brother.

"Can I help you, Kojiro-san?" She asks cautiously eyeing the ninjatō at his side, it still has the same purple wrapped handle from the graduation, and the same black blade.

Kojiro ignores her after a brief glance. She's as useless as ever, it's a wonder she even made it to Chūnin. He glances at every student in the room, carefully and pointedly. Gauging their reactions and their status to the clans. He uses his sensing ability to assess their chakra levels and settles on a child in the far back corner. His eyes look dead, and his demeanor looks defeated. He'll do perfectly.

Taking the steps to the back of the classroom, he stares at the chosen child with cold eyes. Ordered wordlessly, the child stands and falls to Kojiro's side.

"I'll be taking this one, Sensei. Don't expect him tomorrow. Or ever." Kojiro says ominously, shuffling the student out of the classroom at the Chūnin's expense.

"Where are you taking him?" She asks quietly.

"Doesn't matter to you. Catch," He says, throwing a kunai with a note wrapped around the handle. "Go there on your next off day."

She catches the kunai with ease, he didn't throw it very hard. She nods and tucks it away, worry creasing her eyelids, her student is being taken from her and she's been summoned by a hunter-nin to an unknown location. You shouldn't refuse a hunter-nin's summons, not if you value your life, or the life of your loved ones. Either way, it's not something you look forward to.

 _She seems too emotional to be a Kiri-nin._ Kojiro notes.

He shrugs the thought away and leads the student away from the academy.

* * *

The child Kojiro chose is weak, one of the weakest in that class. There was almost no chance for him to graduate, which meant he'll be better served with Kojiro's purposes. The two walk through an alleyway, it's dark and stinks of shit and piss. The canopy covering the alleyway lets in the barest amount of light to guide their path, and the child continues to step in rotten food and waste.

Kojiro is disgusted by the child, more than he thought possible. He doesn't talk, he barely walks right, and he seems so defeated that death would be a nicer option for him. Regardless, that's a waste of potential. Not the child's potential, but the potential for gaining something useful with the broken husk that looks like a human.

At the end of the alleyway they come to a metal door showing many dent marks from past experience. There's a covered slit in the door, and Kojiro knocks three times. The slit opens revealing some very green eyes.

"To what do we owe the pleasure, Hunter-sama?" The rough voice calls out brusquely.

Kojiro is slightly intrigued. It's rare for civilians to know the marking of a hunter-nin. Granted he blazingly shows it on the left side of his neck, so the few that could know, would know.

"I'm here for Gozou-san. I've brought a present." Kojiro nods in the direction of the boy.

The civilian looks down, and sees the top of the child's head. He doesn't get a large field of view with his slit, but accepts the knowledge given to him by his eyes. He thinks for a few seconds before unlocking the door to let the shinobi and 'present' in. If he had refused, there wouldn't be a door left to open, let alone a guard for it.

The guard leads the two newcomers to an open room with a pair of couches facing each other. A coffee table separates the couches, sat atop it is a very fine cloth. In fact, looking around the room Kojiro notes a lot of fancy tapestries and expensive vases. Gozou must be more wealthy than he'd like to admit to the public. They sit on the couch facing the exit, which serves as an entrance to the room as well. There's only one way in and out of the room, and Kojiro is determined to watch it.

The guard leaves once the two are seated and the child looks up to Kojiro for the first time. His eyes are still dead, and his demeanor is the same, but something is different.

"Why are we here?" The child asks, it seems like he's curious which is the first emotion he's shown.

"Shut up, brat." Kojiro replies, silencing the child. It doesn't matter to him if the kid is curious or not, he's not going to be with him for long.

A few minutes pass before a giant of a man walks in through the door frame. His stature seems to be inhuman, he stands taller than seven feet and is built like a mountain. No waste of any muscle on this man whatsoever. His eyes are intelligent too, unfortunately this man isn't a Ninja. He's a civilian who models himself after a shinobi to garner fear and respect, his name is Hasegawa Gozou.

A few adept strides lands him a seat facing the hunter-nin and tool. His pearly white eyes gauge the situation before him, the only times shinobi and kunoichi come to him are about the rebellion. This seems different somehow, he's never been approached by a hunter-nin before. Let alone one with a gift.

"Good afternoon, Hunter-sama." He starts eloquently, he'll figure it out shortly, he's sure.

"I don't care for pleasantries, tell me about the rebellion." Kojiro demands.

Gozou studies the shinobi carefully, unless he's an exceptional shinobi or someone in the rebellion has referred him, he shouldn't know the connection. Hunter-nin have been exempt from the recruiting process for the reason of common sense. They're the ones making the most money in Kiri, and have the largest benefits from the current system.

"Whatever do you mean?" Gozou wagers his bets, assuming the shinobi in front of him is grasping at straws.

"Cut the bullshit, I'm not going to spend all night dancing with words. This kid here is from the academy, I brought him for you to take care of. He wouldn't have survived the graduation exam, so I figured someone like you would enjoy taking care of him." Kojiro replies sternly.

Gozou looks at the ninja in front of him more closely, a lot of studying has garnered him little information. Then it hits him, the eyes. They're mismatched yellow and red, the shinobi in front of him is one half of the Stalkers of the Mist. A duo of hunter-nin renowned for their completed missions. They never take anything below a A-rank, and they've only failed one mission out of hundreds.

The large man starts sweating heavily. The temperature drops in the room, and he can sense the killing intent from the shinobi in front of him. It seems the shock from recognizing the identity of this man has let time pass much faster and he's getting impatient. Gozou clears his throat and forcefully calms himself. Getting nervous now is not a good plan for surviving.

"Ah… If I recall correctly, you're the Vampire of the Mist, right?" Gozou risks bringing up the title. Some ninja hate their titles, some love them. Kojiro visibly relaxes at the name of his title, and Gozou wagers on the latter.

"I am, what of it?" Kojiro questions.

"I've heard that you're loyal to Kiri…" Gozou whispers, he's a betting man. If he wasn't he wouldn't be the leader of the civilian support to the rebellion.

"I may be, I may not be. While it does concern you, know that I won't be telling you one way or the other. Answer my questions, and I'll let you save this child." Came the brusque reply.

Gozou coughs once, fist to his mouth.

"Well then, what do you specifically want to know about the rebellion?" Gozou asks in a moderate tone.

"Who leads it, how it's being funded, if there are any outside influences such as other shinobi villages acting on it." Kojiro says, more as statements than questions.

"Well… if that's all. Mei Terumī is leading it, my trading contacts along with some outside sources are funding it, but to my knowledge, no villages are working with the rebellion." Gozou answers in order, slightly reluctant.

"Wonderful, thank you for the information. If you can give me the names of the more… wealthy… backers, I'd appreciate it." Kojiro says easily.

"What for? There's little reason for you to know." Gozou comments, he caught the threat, but he's more concerned with the reason behind the threat.

"I need to have a chat with them. Like I've had a chat with you today." Kojiro answers.

"I see…" Gozou lets out, mind racing of all the options he has. Very few leave him alive, and he knows it. The entire meeting today left him dead regardless of his answers. He's not resigned to his fate, not even close. There's so much left for him to do, and a lot of it comes in the form of saving Kiri from itself.

"I'm waiting, Gozou-san." Kojiro unsheathes a kunai and starts flipping it in the air.

The temperature in the room drops another few degrees, and Gozou begins sweating again. He knows that this is a terrible situation for him, and the only way for his life to be saved is for some random shinobi from the rebellion to walk in the doors who can fight the Vampire in front of him. Very few can, especially from the rebellion that's full of second and third rate ninja.

"I… er… look. I can't tell you, If that means I die, then so be it." Gozou says, puffing his chest out and staring the exceptional shinobi straight in the eyes.

"Wrong answer, Gozou-san." With that, kojiro catches the Kiri standard kunai and launches it for the mans forehead.

It travels fast, not his hardest throw, but too fast for a civilian to catch. To Kojiro's surprise, the kunai was caught in a very feminine hand. He hadn't even seen the kunoichi enter, which means she was in the room the whole time, or Kojiro isn't as observant as he thought. Regardless, his sensing ability should have told him she was there, so she must have excellent chakra control to hide herself.

"I need him, no need for senseless death." Mei Terumī says casually, twirling the caught kunai.

"Huh, I never would have expected this. The leader of the rebellion, right here and in front of me. Sometimes shinobi make little sense to me, always in the right place at the right time. I suppose that's my cue to leave, have the child." Kojiro stands up casually and takes his leave.

Watchful eyes from both other inhabitants of the room stare at him as he leaves.

"Next time we meet, Mei, I won't be alone." Kojiro calls over his shoulder out the door.

* * *

Kiyoshi wakes up with a pounding headache to a knock on the door. He looks around the room to find Kojiro, to find him absent with a kunai in his place.

"Huh, where the fuck is Kojiro?" Kiyoshi asks himself, getting to his feet and gulping the water Kojiro left for him.

Kiyoshi drags himself to the door and opens it.

"Kiyoshi-sama. So it was you who sent for me." The female Chūnin announces hesitantly, averting her gaze as to not annoy him.

"Who the fuck are you?" Kiyoshi questions, scratching his head and yawning.

"You don't remember me?" She inquires, a look of confusion overtook her.

"Should I? Wait a second." Kiyoshi sprints back to his bed, donning his gear and rushing past the Chūnin to the quarters next door.

The Chūnin follows expectantly, curious but apprehensive. Kiyoshi bangs on the door repeatedly until the occupant opens up, to which Kiyoshi continues to knock, but on the mans face.

"Oh shit, you opened it," Kiyoshi remarks, drawing his chokutō. "Remember me you piece of shit?"

"Oh crap, Kiyoshi-san, I didn't realise it was you I scoffed at." The man whimpered. Kiyoshi's killing intent started to target the man, causing his hairs to stand on end.

"Too little, too late you waste of air." Kiyoshi growls at him.

"Akutō Release: Heaven Path." Kiyoshi's eyes start to turn pure yellow, he swung the sword efficiently, chopping off one arm.

Blood spurted from the wound, but not so fast as the other arm falling to the ground from a second strike. Both wounds sprayed blood and the look of shock on the man was pleasing to Kiyoshi. The Chūnin backed off again, now fully realizing Kojiro's intention of sending her to his brother. A sick joke, from time long ago, but one Kiyoshi would admire.

The man's arms were in a pile of viscera on the ground, guts atop both of them, as Kiyoshi had not stopped at his second strike, his third eviscerated the man.

"Next time you know better than to laugh at me." Kiyoshi comments to the other man present, the dead man's bunkmate.

"You and Kojiro are monsters!" The Chūnin howled out, attempting to run towards the elevator.

She failed.

Kiyoshi had already body flickered in front of her, grabbing her by the neck, his eyes pure red. She hadn't even seen the transformation.

"Where do you think you're going, bitch?" Kiyoshi queries, tightening his grip crushing the woman's esophagus.

She tried to reply, but no words left her.

"As I expected." Kiyoshi drops her and returns to his room moodily.

Kiyoshi struggles internally, the Chūnin said she was summoned. It wasn't him who did so, which means it was someone he knew. Probably his brother, no one knows him well enough to remember the time from his brother's graduation other than his brother. So what was she here for?

Mentally, Kiyoshi is intelligent. He knows this, and so does everyone else. He's not just a bloodthirsty brutal warrior. He can have intelligent thoughts and actions, they're just not his way of doing things. A light bulb sparks in his head, Kojiro sent for her with reason. Reason for him to remember something.

A flash of memories enter his mind, the first two years the brothers worked together. They always completed their missions. Quickly and efficiently, no time wasted. On that fateful day where his younger brother was injured, he changed. He knew he changed and yet he didn't care. It didn't stop him.

He got sloppy, the mission his brother was injured, they failed. He didn't care for completing it, his brother was much more important. After that the missions they took were finished lazily. Kiyoshi took too much time, too much care with his brother. If it wasn't that, it was him tunnelling on one aspect of the mission. He can't count the amount of times his younger brother had to pull him out of it and back on track.

They completed their missions, sure. They were not quick, nor efficient, however. Which started to show on their rap sheet. Kiyoshi didn't care, only his brothers life was important to him, not the mission. To the point of taking damage from enemies that his brother clearly would have survived. His fights were always brutal, and he forgot how to kill cleanly and silently.

Kojiro brought this dead corpse to their doorstep so he'd remember the times when they worked well together. When he wasn't screwing up the dynamic with his over corrections or tunnel vision. When he wasn't taking hits he didn't need to. Of times when he was himself. The bloodthirsty, yet smart, self. He shuddered, his brother would have had to put up with this bullshit for three years. He couldn't imagine dealing with it for a day.

At the end of his musing, the door to his room shot open, revealing a disheveled but clean Kojiro.

"You didn't even call the fucking clean up crew." Kojiro states blandly, shutting the door behind him.

Kiyoshi struggles for a moment, he could have sworn he did. Regardless, he forgets about it and stands up, walking to face his brother. The younger one only stands a short inch under him now. Fifteen and six foot, not something that happens often for shinobi. Kiyoshi reaches up to his younger brothers head, and ruffles his hair with a grin.

"Maybe not." Kiyoshi says.

Kojiro breaks out into a smile, his brother is back.


	3. Chapter Two: Rebellion

TangentOne: Two, are you there?

TangentTwo: ...

TangentOne: Two?

TangentTwo: ...

TangentOne: I finally have a break. Today is a good day.

TangentTwo: One! One! Guess what I found in store room seven!

TangentOne: **_*Sighs*_**

* * *

Kiri's changed. Normally there's a lot of death, a lot of crime and a lot of odd reports for guard-nin to respond too. Kirigakure doesn't have a police force, the guards take care of that duty. The streets have been silent recently. Very little traffic after dark, whereas before that was the most active time. Of course, people are still getting their essentials, but not as often or with as much tenacity.

The whole village is in a quiet state. Very little is happening, and even less is talked about. The two brothers stare out their window on the morning of a bright day. The brightest day Kiri has seen in decades. The mist is at its thinnest, and the sun is shining through much more harshly. An ear piercing whistle starts off in the distance. Followed by another, and another. The brothers share a look as the sound continues to travel through the silent village.

"It's time, Kiyoshi." Kojiro states.

"Aye, they're making their move." He replies.

The two brothers don their respective weapons and Kiyoshi tightens his headband. They walk out of their apartment silently, the other hunter-nin are surely awake at the noise by now and would be making their own move soon. They call the elevator, which is handily already at the top, and climb inside.

The elevator ride is slow, not because of the moment, but because it's a shit elevator. When they reach the bottom, they take off at a breakneck pace. The doors to the mission floor fling open and they shoot through. Heading for the Mizukage's building. Undoubtedly, Mei Terumī is already there, acting on her impulses.

They race towards the building, heaven path already active to boost their speed. The Ninja highway hasn't been this free in a while, but the sound from the whistling still manages to make the trip annoying. Suddenly, they stop moving. The Mizukage's building is right in front of them, and Mei Terumī is facing off with their Kage.

"Your rule of tyranny is over, Yagura." Mei declares, swiftly moving into a combat stance.

"Er, actually," Kiyoshi pipes up. "I really don't think so."

Mei doesn't turn her head to look at the newcomer, you don't just ignore a Kage level opponent, even for a new voice.

"And who are you to say that?" Mei says back.

Yagura watches the exchange with mild amusement. He relaxes, and smiles.

"I'm sure you've met them, Mei. The brothers best known as The Stalkers of the Mist. The older one being our very own Hell Incarnate. Whilst the younger is best known as the Vampire." Yagura comments, clearly at ease.

Mei scowls, she knows those names. They're not ones you want to face. Ever. Even one on his own is a difficult fight, but together, they're almost unstoppable. Mei is good, and she knows it, Yagura she's sure she can handle, but the brothers. They're a whole other variable that she didn't know was coming.

Thinking back on it, she should have though. She met the Vampire once, he came to Gozou with a child asking about her rebellion. He was alluding to this very moment when he told her about being alone. Or lack thereof. She inwardly curses, it's too late to back down now.

"Hello again, Mei." Kojiro calls.

She doesn't take her eyes off the Kage, the one she deems more dangerous. Flying through hand seals, she gathers chakra in her chest, building it up to an unreasonable amount. Before she got to her last seal, a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled none too gently. Kiyoshi didn't stop pulling either, he began to spin her around him.

"Don't ignore me, bitch." He seethes, launching her into the Kage's building with an audible crack.

Kojiro and Yagura stare at Kiyoshi intently, they're both curious as to how he was that fast. Well, Yagura is, Kojiro is more concerned with a potential regression. That was pretty stupid, if she finished the seals before he reached her, whatever she released would have been in his face. Mei's buildup of chakra stresses her coils. With no release for the gathered chakra, her body feels heavy and unresponsive.

She falls out of the imprint in the wall face first to the ground. As she falls, she manages to get out a few hand seals to release the chakra. The mist around her starts to shimmer into clones. Taking form quickly and with practiced ease. The stress buildup immediately calms, leaving her in a better state of mind.

Yagura reins his thoughts back in from how fast one of his shinobi is, to the fight. His staff is still on his back, no real reason for him to be wielding it yet.

"Are you two able to handle her? There's a bunch of things I have to do today." Yagura casually calls.

Kiyoshi's eye twitches at the blatant rudeness, but doesn't act on it. Kojiro thanks the Sage of the Six Paths for that and smiles at his Kage.

"Yes, she'll be no problem for us." Kojiro answers tactfully, ignoring the look he earned from his brother and Mei.

Yagura nods once and takes off, probably to slaughter some rebellious ninja. Kojiro's thoughts are pulled back to the mass of water clones stood before him and his brother. The leader of the rebellions face reverts back to a scowl once she recovers, which the water clones mimic perfectly.

"Akutō Release: Hell Path." Kiyoshi grunts out, eyes morphing from yellow to red.

Kojiro stays in heaven path, predicting the thought process of his elder brother. Mei starts a taijutsu barrage with her clones, which Kojiro manages to handle all on his own. The water clones are slaughtered by the dozens whilst Kiyoshi speeds through hand seals faster than ever.

In the span of three seconds, all the water clones are dispersed leaving only the real Mei left. Kiyoshi finishes his seal list at the same time, collecting a mass of chakra in his chest. Kojiro body flickers to a roof, throwing a kunai to pin Mei in place by the foot. It succeeds.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!" Kiyoshi roars, spitting a mass of water out of his throat that takes the form of a dragon.

It speeds towards the stuck Mei, who manages to erect a wall of lava for the fire dragon to slam into. She pulls the kunai out of her foot and body flickers to the same roof Kojiro is on, throwing it back at the young man. Kiyoshi darts forward, eyes flickering to full yellow. He catches the kunai middair, turning to face the rebellions leader.

"I need him, no need for senseless death," Kiyoshi says, openly mocking the kunoichi. "Oh… wait a minute. I said that wrong, time for the senseless death to start."

Kojiro inwardly sighs, and mentally facepalms. His brother is a little eccentric when he doesn't take a fight seriously. His eyes turn red as Kiyoshi darts forward to face the kunoichi in a taijutsu battle.

* * *

 _Kiyoshi stands before his brother. Kojiro has just turned seven, and earned the right to learn their family's Kekkei Genkai. They're stood on a lake, a training field on the outskirts of Kiri._

" _Listen up, I'm explaining this once and once only. Our Kekkei Genkai is an enhancement limit, when you use Hell Path, it strengthens your taijutsu and ninjutsu power exponentially. Heaven Path quickens your pace and reaction time, also allowing you to control chakra techniques much more clearly." Kiyoshi explains._

" _How do I use either path?" Kojiro asks._

" _Like a regular jutsu. We use a hand seal, doesn't matter which, and regulate the chakra faster or slower depending on which path you want to use. Fast for Heaven, and slow for Hell."_

" _That's it?" Kojiro queries._

" _That's it." Kiyoshi affirms._

* * *

Kiyoshi starts a furious exchange of fists and kicks, in the random manner that is the Kiri style. Of course, when learning weapons there is a certain style or skill that one learns and adapts for themselves, but taijutsu is its own form of fighting. The moves the facing ninja pull off are fluid and exact, proving them both to be masters in the subject. Yet still, the fighting is random and without any rhythm.

Kojiro looks on, readying his jutsu for the perfect moment, eyeing the fight curiously for any more signs of regression from his brother. He isn't worried about the person they're fighting, as a matter of fact they've fought worse opponents. The issue is that they haven't fought someone this strong in a while, and Kiyoshi may turn into a beast hunting for blood.

The ninja fighting each other both begin to sweat. The fight has been going on for a while, and no openings have been found by either side. Mei is content to drag this out, the longer the fight, the more time she has until back up. That being her thought process, she still can't go on forever.

Kiyoshi smirks, he can see it. Three more strikes and his brother will finally have an opening to use, footing and rhythm aside, there's a pattern with Mei's movements. Undoubtedly his brother has seen the pattern too.

"Kojiro, now!" He yells, the three strikes flashed in an instant.

Kojiro saw it, the opening was tiny, a very quick stumble that Mei would catch easily. If you weren't watching closely, you wouldn't have even noticed it. That's all he needed though, and while smiling, unleashed the jutsu.

"Wind Release: Wind Bullet." Kojiro chants, unleashing a maelstrom of wind bullets that were previously invisible to the eye.

They shot forward at a blinding speed, catching Mei even more off guard. Kojiro didn't charge the bullets with enough chakra to kill, just enough to knock her out. Mei reacted well, even being off balance, only letting a few hit her. Those few were enough though, as she flew backwards from the impact and found herself without a conscious mind.

Both brothers revert to their normal state, winded and tired. Sure, they won the fight without too much of an issue, but the chakra drain on using their enhancement technique was still very prominent. They walk over to the unconscious kunoichi, who hung lopsidedly off the edge of the building, and question what to do next.

"Did he want her dead?" Kiyoshi asks.

"I'm not sure, probably not. Even if she died, she'd end up a martyr and his reign would fall short from the rebound. If she's alive and controlled, she'd be more useful to round up the last of their rebellion." Kojiro replies logically.

"Fuck, I wanted to kill her." Kiyoshi whines.

Kojiro shrugs and begins to tie Mei up, carefully making sure to tie her hands in a way that she couldn't use hand seals. Then he threw her over his shoulder and jumped off the building followed by his brother. He left Mei just inside the Mizukage's building and the two left to help deal with the rest of the rebellion.

* * *

Two Days Later

The brothers walk casually back into their humble abode in the hunter-nin's quarters. They take their respective beds and sit down to face each other. Both are extremely tired, the rebellion just finished, or at least their part in stopping it. Whatever remains of the rebellion are either surrendering unconditionally, or leaving Kiri without being noticed.

"That was the most eventful time of our collective lives." Kojiro comments blandly.

"Fuck the assholes who surrendered, though. I wanted more blood." Kiyoshi replies with a flick of the wrist.

"Is all you care about blood?" Kojiro queries.

"Don't be stupid, I also care about women," he begins, then thinks for a second upon seeing the half lidded eyes of his brother. "Oh! And you, yeah there's the list."

"Three whole things on your list, you have a lot to live for." Kojiro retorts, taking off the ninjatō's strap and setting it aside.

Kiyoshi mirrors him with his chokutō, unsheathing the blade once laid in his lap. He eyes the swords blemishes and watches in amusement as the blade snaps in half at the middle and falls down to his lap.

"Well I need a new fucking blade," Kiyoshi chuckles. "Do you know where I can find Jūzō?"

Kojiro's head snaps up from his own inspection, eyeing his brother with careful precision.

"Are you fucking stupid?" Kojiro asks seriously.

"We've been over this many times, yes. Also, I like that one." Kiyoshi replies, mock serious.

"You need to be trained by specific people to be able to wield it. Not only that, you need to find the man who holds it and kill him. Both of those latter prospects seem really unlikely, even for you. He's been missing for ages." Kojiro explains, still deadly serious.

"Then _we_ can find him, _together,_ and get _me_ the blade." Kiyoshi says dramatically.

"You're insufferable." Kojiro sighs.

"That's my job. Have you heard from your summons lately? Mine haven't talked to me for a while." Kiyoshi replies, changing the subject from a jovial to serious manner.

"I haven't, even when I try to summon them, I'm not able to get an answer." Kojiro replies, with that information both brothers know something is wrong in the summoning realm.

"What do you think is the problem?" Kiyoshi wonders, not wanting to dedicate brain power to solving the issue.

"I've no idea, I might reverse summon myself and see what the issue is. They taught me when I got the contract to do it if I ever needed a break from Kiri." Kojiro explains.

"Well, go on then. Get your lazy ass out there and figure out what the issue is, in the meanwhile I'm going to sleep." Kiyoshi orders, crumpling in on himself lying on the bed.

"Of course you are." Kojiro responds.

Kojiro stood and began the reverse summon seal. It's slightly different from the main summon seal, but very quick to learn. With a small amount of time and chakra spent, he disappeared from their room in a cloud of chakra smoke.

* * *

Kojiro finds himself in a pitch dark cave, water dripping from the stalactites he can't see. He can hear, though, and he's learned many times over the few years he's had this summon to rely on his hearing in their realm. Even if he enhanced his eyes, the darkness is pure and deep like a void. It can only be seen through the eyes of his summons. Even the species contract holder is blind here, something his summons overlooked, rather than deciding upon as a group.

"Kōmori, where are you?" Kojiro calls.

A million flaps of various bat's wings filled his ears, hoping beyond hope that his summon answered him before he was swarmed by bats that want to be summoned or meet the first species summoner. His hopes were misplaced.

"Oh it's the summoner!"

"The summoner has come to see us!"

"We love you summoner!"

"Summon me next time, I'll be a great help to whatever you need!"

The relentless voices of bats filled his ears, and all he could do was smile awkwardly. It wouldn't do to murder his own summons. Besides, he loved them all in a roundabout way. Something must have changed in him when he signed the contract, his attitude toward the animals became much more strong in favor of them.

"Enough," A cool voice pierced through the swarming. "The summoner is to be respected, not played with."

The bats reluctantly move off, taking their previous spots on the cave top.

"Thank you, Kōmori." Kojiro replies to the large bat, not that he can see him here, but he has past knowledge.

"Why are you here, summoner? We did not summon you." He asks coolly, moving the conversation straight to the point.

"That's the issue, Kōmori. You haven't, and even when I try, you do not come. The same goes with my brothers summons, your allies. Something must have happened for you to ignore us." Kojiro explains, hoping it sounded less accusing than he imagined.

"Something has happened, our allies and us are in the process of talking about how to move forward. We would like to consult you two, but we would have liked a plan before Kiyoshi goes and does something reckless as your brother is wont to do." The large bat replies, ignoring the accusing statement from before.

"I see, and what happened?" Kojiro asks.

The large bat sighs, in that weird way that bats do. More like a snort than a sigh, but Kojiro remembers being told it is a sigh. He clearly doesn't want to tell Kojiro yet, but Kojiro holds his ground, a species summoner is a sacred person to the summon. To withhold information he's requested is considered rude, even species secrets. A summoner and summon are tied by blood, family in every sense of the word with nothing to hide from one another. Nothing they _can_ hide, given long enough.

"The bears have a perfect sage. They've gotten large heads on their shoulders, and have started pestering our smaller caves. On top of that, our allies are starting to deal with skirmishes along their rivers. It seems like their might be war in the summon realm, and we're not sure how to handle it." Kōmori says with heavy breaths.

"That's a big deal. Way bigger than I thought it would be." Kojiro comments, a little awestruck.

There hasn't been summon wars since before the hidden villages were founded, and they always left the summon realm in shambles. Many of the summons still alive today remember those times, and they would like to avoid them happening again at all costs. Some look back and wish for those days again, apparently the bears follow that wish.

"It is, and we are sure that the sage will be multitudes stronger than you, at least in your current state. We're not even sure if you two can handle the sage together." Kōmori continues.

"What do Shuryō and Shigeru think about this?" Kojiro asks, naming the leader of the bats and the bat sage in turn.

"Shuryō has been trying to calm the situation down, but to no avail. The bears are being more aggressive than ever now that they have a perfect sage. Shigeru has been meditating since this started, giving very little insight. We know he'll be ready when the time comes, he always is." Kōmori states.

"This is much more than I had imagined… we just got done with a rebellion in Kiri and now we have a summon war to deal with?" Kojiro mutters to himself.

"What's this about a rebellion?" Kōmori queries.

"Oh, right. You haven't heard yet. Kiri had a rebellion two days ago, we stopped it with ease, but it was still a large one. Kiri's supplies have dwindled a lot, as well as the manpower we once boasted. Near a third of the ninja in Kiri supported the rebellion and, obviously, most are dead." Kojiro explains.

"Wow. I didn't think it would be this soon." Kōmori comments.

"What do you mean?" Kojiro asks curiously.

"From what you told me when we became partners, this kind of thing was inevitable. I didn't think it would happen so soon, though."

"Fair enough, more importantly, we need Kiyoshi and his summons, as well as the respective leaders. We need to sit down and think of a course of action. Kiyoshi may have been reckless when you met him, but he's back to his old ways. I promise." Kojiro swears after demanding the meeting.

"I can talk to Shuryō, we'll get a meeting set up. I'll let you know when it's happening." Kōmori promises.

Kojiro nods, knowing the bat will see him, and leaves the realm in a cloud of chakra smoke.

* * *

Kojiro pops back in the brothers shared apartment, noting a sleeping Kiyosh and nothing out of place. He nudges his brother awake, who ignores the nudging and continues to snore peacefully. Kojiro sighs, grabs a pillow from his bed and smacks his brother awake with it.

Kiyoshi acts on impulse, swivelling quickly and effortlessly to plant a kick in Kojiro's chest sending him flying toward a wall. He hits the wall with a very audible snap, leaving a body-print in the wall.

"The fuck is wrong with you, waking me up like that?" Kiyoshi angrily asks.

"You were sleeping too hard, this is very important." Kojiro retorts, calmly peeling himself out of the wall-print.

"Well, get on with it then." Kiyoshi huffs, setting himself back on the bed comfortably.

"The bears have a perfect sage, and they've been starting skirmishes and pestering our summons territory because they have an ego. Dumb fucks." Kojiro comments loosely.

"They're what? Fighting our summons? What fucking moron would think that's a good idea? Regardless if they have a sage or not!" Kiyoshi says angrily.

With that comment, he disappears in a cloud of chakra smoke. He didn't reverse summon himself, but his summons did. Kojiro sighs, knowing that he told his brother enough to make the cats a little annoyed with him.

* * *

"Why the fuck didn't you tell me sooner?" Kiyoshi demands after immediately being reverse summoned. His eyes hadn't even adjusted to his surroundings yet, and he's already berating his summons.

An audible sigh echoed throughout the hall. Many large cats sat surrounding a plush cushion where Daisuke, the leader of the cats, sat atop. A giant white lion, yellow piercing eyes shot through to Kiyoshi's soul, managing to make even him feel slightly nervous.

"It wasn't prudent, given your actions recently." Daisuke comments.

"I only killed a _few_ people, not sure what you're talking about." Kiyoshi comments lightly.

"We count. It wasn't a _few._ " Daisuke replies.

"Yeah, I've killed a lot of people, what about it?" Kiyoshi retorts, caving in immediately.

"You've been reckless, not just homicidal. We couldn't tell you in good faith, not until you stopped." Daisuke continues.

"I'm fine now, I promise." Kiyoshi says seriously, steeling his resolve.

Daisuke swaps his gaze to Riborubāoserotto, Kiyoshi's personal summon.

"Is this true, Riborubā?" Daisuke asks the giant ocelot, knowing that he would have been watching Kiyoshi recently.

"It is, he's better now. Well as good as he can be." Riborubā says loyally.

Daisuke humms thoughtfully, Riborubā has never been wrong about Kiyoshi before. He reads him like a child's book, very easily. He comes to a decision near instantly, as he normally does. Everyone in the cat realm knows that Daisuke is the most decisive leader they have, and for him to be this reluctant about the situation with the bears does not bode well.

"Fine, we'll hold the meeting with the bats. Let Shuryō know, and say that sometime in the night is best for us." Daisuke orders a small housecat to his right.

The cat nods faithfully and scampers off towards the bat realm. Daisuke turns his attention back to their species summoner. Trying to figure him out, like he always does. Kiyoshi's actions always seem to elude him, even though Riborubā can read him.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Kiyoshi tells Daisuke, much to his dismay.

"How much do you know?" Daisuke continues, expertly dodging that remark.

"The bears are being assholes with an ego the size of the moon. Something about a sage and wanting more territory because they feel like entitled cunts." Came the reply, as brusque as Daisuke was expecting.

"Seems like you know enough, what's your opinion on what we should do?" Daisuke asks curiously, his summoner usually ignores these kinds of questions, or gives a very rudimentary answer. Now that's he's better…

"Fuck if I know, I'd like to beat the fuckers to death. I leave the how's and when's to Kojiro." He replies casually.

Daisuke sighs, seems his hope was misplaced.

"We'll let you know the time of our meeting with the bats, I'm sure your brother will know as well." He says, in a roundabout way of dismissing Kiyoshi without lording over him.

Kiyoshi shrugs, smart enough to know not to argue. He has more questions about how long he's been watched and why it was happening without his knowledge. He'd ask Riborubā later, it promises less friction with his summons that way.

"I'll see you all later, don't have any slaughter fests without me." Kojiro says, grinning madly before Daisuke releases the reverse summon sending him back to his apartment.

* * *

Kiyoshi flops back onto his bed, Daisuke released him a foot higher than when he left. Kojiro stares at the mild irritated look his brother has plastered on his face with interest.

"What happened?" Kojiro queries.

"The fuckers were watching me." Kiyoshi replies distastefully.

"I'm not surprised, the bats watch me too." Kojiro answers.

"Well, the difference is you knew about it." Kiyoshi says flippantly.

"I see... they probably had good reason. What did Riborubā have to say about it?" Kojiro asks.

"Nothing, yet. We were in a very public place and I didn't have the chance to interrogate the lying fuck, yet." He replies, calmly though it was, Kojiro could tell he was angry.

"Interrogate? Maybe you should just ask? It's a little odd to interrogate your summon." Kojiro says carefully.

"Two in the same, at least for me. You know that." Kiyoshi snaps.

"Regardless, what did they say about the meeting?" Kojiro queries.

"Something about being notified the day it happens. It's a very tense situation. I may not have been too happy about my summons doubting me, but I could still tell they were all very nervous. Not just about me, either." Kiyoshi explains, resting his head on his hands folded behind.

"Interesting. Well, I'm exhausted. Goodnight." Kojiro blandly states, removing the uncomfortable combat vest and flopping on the bed.

Kiyoshi sighs and stays awake for a few more minutes, rethinking why his summons would be watching him without his knowledge.


	4. Chapter Three: Counsel

TangentOne: The plot thickens.

TangentTwo: Hopefully we get to see bloodshed! Oh how I love bloodshed!

TangentOne: I have a feeling we will.

TangentTwo: Oh? Are you a seer now?

TangentOne: No, I'm just a tangent.

TangentTwo: That's what I thought, don't pretend to be something you aren't. ***Huffs***

TangentOne: For the Almighty's sake...

TangentTwo: Don't say his name in vain!

* * *

"Summoner." A faint voice calls.

"Shhhhhhhh." Kojiro replies to the voice.

"Summoner…" The voice calls back.

"Not right now, Kiyoshi, I'm sleeping." Kojiro whines.

"I'm not the one trying to wake you, ya twat." Kiyoshi blandly states from the bathroom, muffled slightly by the thin walls.

At this, Kojiro bolts upright, alert and awake. Noticing the familiar chakra of a bat, one he can say for sure he knows. Komori, his primary summon. Rather different to Kiyoshi's, in the fact that Kojiro's summons like him.

"Kōmori? Is it time for the meeting already? It's only been three days." Kojiro comments, rubbing at his eyes and beginning his morning routine.

"Yes, the felines are ready tonight, we've decided to have the meeting sooner due to a large incident we'll fill you two in on during the meeting. This is rather urgent, so if you and your brother don't mind, hurry up please." Kōmori urges.

"Give me a minute! I'm shitting over here…" Kiyoshi calls.

"Summon us in five minutes." Kojiro tells his summon, dismissing the large bat from the apartment.

The toilet flushes the second a poof-like sound was heard announcing the bat had left, and Kiyoshi had finished his business. Kojiro stares at the now pleased looking form of his brother, just exiting the bathroom. Kiyoshi turns and sees the unamused look on his brothers face, and shrugs.

"I make time for my shits, they're golden." Kiyoshi comments, starting the simple process to reverse summon himself.

Kojiro sighs, and mirrors his brothers actions. The summons would have no issues with their human counterparts showing up earlier than mentioned.

* * *

Meeting Hall

The meeting hall reflected the felines expressions more so than the bats, particularly because felines are more expressive. A long table was situated in the middle of a large pearly room, if the room itself was brightly lit, both Kiyoshi and Kojiro were sure they'd be blinded. As it stands, the room was dim, emulating the brightness of a Kiri morning.

On the left side of the long table sat cushions, which atop sat regal and well groomed felines. The right side of the table was lined with a rail dropped from the ceiling. Large bats hung upside down, visible for the first time to Kojiro. They were indeed imposing for their size, however, compared to the largest of felines, Daisuke, they looked miniscule. The bats leader, Shuryō, hung opposite of Daisuke, half the size of the monstrous feline.

"Well at least the sizes are correct." Kiyoshi comments jovially.

"That was a crude remark, Brother." Kojiro responds.

Kiyoshi shrugs and takes his seat at the end of the table, to the right of Daisuke. Kojiro sits to the right of his brother, asserting his position as the bat summoner by sitting to the left of Shuryō. The two leaders of their respective species acknowledge the summoners in their own way, then the small housecat that alerted the bats of this meeting appeared.

"The Reactionary War Council between the Felines and the Pteropine has now officially begun." The housecat states, scampering off.

Both sides of the council started shouting clauses and tactics they could use to their advantage. A large portion of either group has not seen a summon war, ever, making both extremely anxious. Much to the war veterans dismay. As Daisuke prepared to roar, and Shuryo prepared to screech, Kiyoshi slammed a chakra infused fist on the marble table. Shattering a crack from his contact point down to the very end, leaving the table on its last legs. A stray piece of marble broke off from the crater, slicing his mask in half whilst leaving a red line marked of blood.

Kiyoshi's mask fell off his face, revealing a very pissed off frown filled with pointed teeth.

"Shut the fuck up! This meeting is to deal with the situation formally, not to act like children!" He roared, mimicking his summons.

Kojiro and all present stopped their bickering, most notably though, the summons who knew of Kiyoshi's mannerisms did not expect this from him. Daisuke seemed more than impressed, something he had never felt before from his summoner.

"...Well, now that's settled, let's get to the matter at hand. A few skirmish bands of bears have started more frequent pestering of the bats territorial caves. As their hibernation season draws closer, we feel their attacks will become more severe." Daisuke informs the council.

"I've moved all Vampirical and miscellaneous fighters from my species to support the defense of the caves under attack," Shuryō continues. "Unfortunately, as a species more inclined to supportive roles in combat, we would like to formally request Feline support on the front line."

Riborubā nods once.

"I figured you would ask, I've already dispatched several teams to the caves under duress. The skirmishes happening by the rivers in our marshland are child's play compared to the battles happening by your caves." He finishes.

Shuryō nods awkwardly, shifting his head down on his perspective, whilst to everyone else his head nodded up.

Daisuke turns to his summoner, eyes him carefully and sighs.

"Summoner, where is your blade?" Daisuke asks.

"It broke from overuse," Kiyoshi replies with a wink. "Thank The Sage my dick doesn't work like that."

Kojiro feels if Daisuke could facepalm, he would. The monstrous sized feline turns away from his summoner and back to the matter at hand.

"We need a unit, something our respective species has a lot of that can work well in tandem. Our specific faction of felines has a lot of trackers, Ocelots, Cheetahs, fast paced hunters." Daisuke informs Shuryō.

"Our few fighters are already stationed as defenders, regardless as a species more suited to supportive roles we'd have more use in the backline. Most of our hordes are distractors, something to capture the eyes of the enemies. If you remember from the last war, Daisuke, as our opponent your species was very inattentive when faced with our fliers." Shuryō responds.

"Indeed, I remember it like it was yesterday. However, that was a non-answer. If you remember, Shuryō, we are now allies. Sharing our tactical and strategic information comes hand-in-hand with winning a war." Daisuke pesters politely.

"Old habits, Daisuke. Our Flying Foxes are extremely adept at using chakra, to the point where they can refill empty tenketsu in others in a matter of seconds. If we scramble together a unit, I suggest we base it around that support type." Shuryō explains.

* * *

Two Hours Later

"Lastly, our movements. With the defenses dealt with, we would like your opinions, summoners, on where we should attack. We have a few spots already chosen by Riborubā, it's down to where you two think their summoner will be." Daisuke comments, looking over his shoulder for the mapper to bring his map to the table.

The moderately sized panther strutted over to Kiyoshi and Daisuke, handing the map to Kiyoshi who takes with a nod. Without unrolling the map, he passes it along to Kojiro.

"Not my expertise." Kiyoshi comments blandly.

Much to Daisuke's, and Kojiro's surprise, Kiyoshi kept his mouth shut for most of the meeting.

"Let's see here…" Kojiro begins to unroll the map, taking note of every minor detail.

To the brothers knowledge, very few humans have ever seen a map of the summon realm. The Pterodine's territory is rather sporadic, a cave system so complex it's woven throughout every portion of the realm. A bulk of caves, the main systems, are situated in the middle of two powerhouses, the Bears, and the Felines.

"Where will you go then?" Shuryō asks.

"Honestly, he's not going to be in any of the spots you've chosen. If I were him, a perfect Sage, I wouldn't use my abilities protecting my summons. The summons already have a sage they can use for defense, on top of the fact that Kiyoshi and I are not sages. He'll attack somewhere, the issue is where." Kojiro explains, not taking his eyes off the map.

Kiyoshi leans over to look at the map, taking in the various landmarks.

"Maybe there." Kiyoshi points to a lake bordering the Felines and Bears.

"The lake is close to a large Cave, one that would allow the bears access to our cave network. It also seems to be a hotspot for newborns, cleaning out the next generation of felines would be a huge blow." Kojiro reasons.

Both Daisuke and Shuryō start looking nervous. Either of those outcomes would be horrendous, and if both happened, they could be looking at a subjugation of territory and being held back in the realm for decades.

"I didn't know any of that, but I thought we could use the natural hot spring while we were in the area." Kiyoshi comments lightly.

Kojiro inwardly facepalms, but ignores the comment.

"We'll head there, even if he doesn't show up to that spot, we can react better from there. It's a fairly central location, and should be where we setup our vanguard headquarters." Came the recommendation from Kojiro.

"Then we'll do that, what do you need for the headquarters?" Riborubā asks.

"At least four more teams, and a large tent. We can have it set up in a few hours if we have that. With the four extra teams, we should be able to handle any kind of invasion." Kojiro explains, racing through multiple scenarios in his head.

"Then that should be that, let's get to work." Daisuke declares, dismissing his entourage.

"Indeed, gather the flying foxes and send them to work, our allies need all the support they can get. Inform Shigeru he's heading to the Vanguard Cave." Shuryō confirms, flying off with his own party.

Soon the two brothers were left alone in the giant pearly hall.

"We just finished a civil war, and now we fight in the summon realm. This war is much more than anything we've ever been a part of." Kojiro states to nothing.

"Aye, at least I could get a new blade out of it." Kiyoshi returns.

"Is all you think about, yourself?" Kojiro asks.

"Most of the time, Kojiro. When I'm not, it's normally about killing people or sex." Kiyoshi replies nonchalantly.

"Fair enough, at least you're reliable. In Kiri, that's hard to come by." Kojiro mumbles.

"Reliable? That's all you think of me? Harsh." Kiyoshi states jovially, standing up to reverse summon himself back to the human realm.

"I used to look up to you." Kojiro mumbles, hoping Kiyoshi didn't hear him as he released his reverse summon.

Kojiro stands up and releases his reverse summon instantly, the same way Kiyoshi did it. The are around him morphed quickly into his very familiar ANBU apartment with an extremely smug looking Kiyoshi sat on his bed.

"You looked up to me, eh?" Kiyoshi taunts.

* * *

"I can see it, looking back now." Kiyoshi says easily, while pitching the tent on the Feline side of the monstrous lake.

"See what?" Kojiro asks, regretting those words immediately.

"You thinking of me as a role model." Kiyoshi states.

"Your team needs to hold point Omega, far right side of the feline side. The Chakra Flare Signal is one-one-seven." Kojiro ignores Kiyoshi whilst ordering one of the teams assigned to the vanguard.

The seven felines nod and the fourteen bats flap their wings hurriedly, they run and fly off in the same direction in a blitz of speed.

"Don't ignore me! You used to look up to me, you know!" Kiyoshi whines.

"Put a fucking sock in it, will you?" Kojiro retorts, walking into the now pitched tent.

"Nah, I do what I want. Pissing you off is one of my favorite pastimes." Kiyoshi jovially states.

"I'm going to regret saying that." Kojiro mutters under his breath, glaring at Kiyoshi.

"Damn right you are," Kiyoshi quips, moving forward to checkout the giant lake. "That's one huge fucking lake."

Around the two brothers is the camp, or a large tent they call a camp, sat the singular unit assigned to defend it. Seven ocelots, one of whom was Riborubā, Kiyoshi's personal summon. Fourteen batts littered throughout the treeline close to the camp, eyes closed and searching for any hostile chakra signatures.

"Yes it is, didn't you say you wanted to check out the natural springs just south of here?" Kojiro asks, hoping to get rid of his annoying brother for a few hours.

"Oh yes! Fucking love springs, I should really open one of these myself when I get home. Whores and springs go perfectly together." Kiyoshi replies, turning to head in the direction of the springs.

"Not sure that's how springs are made." Kojiro states back to the retreating form.

"Not the point, call me if you need anything." Kiyoshi takes off, sprinting faster than his usual pace.

"Now that he's gone, Riborubā, can you help me with setting up our information relay with your leaders?" I ask the excessively large ocelot.

"Absolutely, and as much as I love Kiyoshi, thank you for getting rid of him." Riborubā sighs.

"Oh?" Kojiro inquires, heading into the tent followed by the large feline.

"He's tiring, as I'm sure you've noticed." Riborubā replies.

"Ha! Yes, yes he is." Kojiro agrees.

The two then proceed to start putting together the complicated seal project, which neither knew much about. It took them forty five minutes before they had it working, much to the chagrin of Kojiro.

"Well, now that's do-" Riborubā was cut off by a loud screech from one of the bats posted in the camp.

Similarly, all thirteen others started screeching until Kojiro came to them. When he stood in front of them, they stopped and started to eye him carefully.

"Report." Kojiro demands.

"Team Beta fell, they sent out one-one-three before the signal cut off. A large chakra signature is heading this way." The bat closest to him answered.

As he gave his report, Kojiro's senses flared to an extent he had never felt before. Even when he faced Yagura, or Mei, confidence was his first response. This though, this chakra level made him cringe, something he was totally unprepared to feel. Kojiro's mind raced with possibilities before he realized exactly what he had predicted was happening. The Perfect Bear Sage is heading toward their camp.

Kojiro steeled his nerves, and entered into Heaven path. He flew towards the tent flaps where Riborubā was exiting. Stopping right in front of the large feline, he gave a nod.

"The sage is coming. Go warn Kiyoshi, I don't think we can handle this without him." Kojiro said seriously.

Riborubā nodded and flew off in the direction of the natural spring, Kojiro nodded to the rest of the team stationed at the camp and they fell in line. The group then surged forward over the massive lake towards the massive chakra signature. They hit the lake quickly which slowed them all of nothing, their minds were on autopilot.

A minute and a half flew by faster than Kojiro had wanted, while he was confident in his abilities to hold off the sage until backup arrived, it still irked him to face this level of opponent on his own. Then they saw the figure on the horizon and stopped. The tension built as the figure flew towards them, albeit slower than they travelled.

 _There's no mistake, this is the sage._ Kojiro thought.

"Ready yourselves, this is it." Kojiro states, drawing his ninjatō and standing in his normal heaven path form.

As the figure approached, Kojiro started to make out more detail. It was a large portly man, more akin to someone he would equate running a diner in a fancy town. He wore furs, large ones that would suggest they belonged to a summon. They happened to be in a striped tiger pattern, which angered the ocelots surrounding me, luckily they held formation.

He stopped twenty feet away from Kojiro's group and sized us up. His hands were the only part not covered in tiger fur, and instead were covered in course fur resembling a bear. His hands themselves were clawed, and they were small claws.

"Who the fuck are you?" The man asks, impatience clear in his mannerisms.

"Kojiro. The Bat Summoner." Kojiro replies, staying stock still in his form.

"You think that you can stop me?" The man queries, looking more amused than annoyed now.

"That remains to be seen, you're trespassing on Feline and Pteropine territory. Turn back now or face the consequences." Kojiro orders, flaring his chakra and killing intent to the largest he had ever done before.

The killing intent had been described as a predator watching from the shadows, the more potent the intent, the larger and monstrous the predator had been likened to. This intent, the most potent he had ever made, felt like the man was being sized up by an unknown beast of colossal magnitude. It stayed just out of his periphery and constantly made him look over his shoulder. The man twitched slightly when he felt Kojiro's killing intent, but stood fast and a grin plastered his face.

"This might be fun." He replies, flaring his own killing intent to a gargantuan level.

The large mans killing intent felt intense, something Kojiro would akin to being inside the mouth of a large bear, awaiting his fate to be eaten in one bite. The man in front of him smiled maliciously, and shot forward at an extraordinary speed. He reached forward to swipe in a wide arc at Kojiro, who caught the attack on his blade, switching to hell mode for the defence. Unluckily, the claw shattered the blade as it fell to the ground in pieces.

The two opponents looked at each other, the portly man smiling ferociously, and Kojiro grinning happily.

"This will be fun," Kojiro states simply. "Summons, stay out of this! You'll get in the way."

The summon team reluctantly backed off to give the two space. Where they fell back to stand ten feet away from each other.

"That's more like it!" The Bear Sage roared.

Kojiro launched forward at the same time the opponent did, they exchanged a flew blows before Kojiro was hit in the stomach from a particularly vicious kick, sending him flying twenty feet away. He bounced off the surface of the lake, focused on not submerging. As soon as he stopped bouncing, the man appeared above him and threw a punch into Kojiro's face. Right before it hit, Kojiro submerged, swimming fast downwards.

 _Perks of being a Kiri-nin._ He thought nonchalantly.

With the added benefit of being underwater, he was able to track the large mans movements much easier. While staying in hell path, Kojiro flew through hand seals. He smiled upon his finish of the seals and emerged from the lake twenty feet from the Bear Sage. The man turned on him with a smile.

"Water Release: Explosive Bite of the Water Dragon!" Kojiro yelled maliciously.

Instantly the man shot up into the air, surprise laced his features as a jet of water projected him several stories high. Bullets of water shot from the lake towards him to keep him there and weaken him as a Elemental Dragon formed above him. The second the dragon formed fully it shot forward and swallowed the man whole, roaring ferociously in triumph.

"That was too easy…" Kojiro says after thirty seconds of silence.

"You're right." The man whispers into his ear, pushing his claws into Kojiro back, they pierced his liver, effectively crippling him.

"Fucker…" Kojiro states as he falls to his knees.

The man chuckles and walks to Kojiro's front, blood dripping from his claws and being dispersed into the lake below.

"Well, that was an impressive display of control over an S-rank jutsu. It's a shame I can't take you back with me, I'd love to have an apprentice." He says solemnly.

Kojiro started chuckling, much to the mans chagrin.

"The funny thing is you think you've won." Kojiro states, beginning to turn hysterical.

"What the fuck are you talking about? You're on your deathbed." The man retorts angrily, kicking Kojiro in his stomach, knocking him over.

Kojiro could barely contain his laughter as he felt a presence in the distance, heading quickly towards him.

"I may be impressive, but that presence? They're a fucking maniac!" Kojiro says through fits of laughter.

"Stop laughing! If they're anything like you, it won't be a problem," The man swings his leg for another kick to Kojiro's gut, finding it stopped mid-motion. "What the fu-"

"Don't you fucking _dare_ touch him again." Kiyoshi seethes, killing intent present instantly.

"Wha-" The Sage tries to speak.

"I would suggest shutting your fucking maw, it's the healthier option in this instance." Kiyoshi's eyes turn red, and his hair begins waving and changing to a fiery color from its previous solid black. His sclera change from the regular pure red to a void black, and black eyeshadow forms around his eyes, bridging over his nose.

The killing intent of Kiyoshi flared to the size of a star, it was as if an insurmountable mountain stood in front of the Bear Sage, one that was about to collapse and bury his existence from the world.

"Hell Incarnate…" Kojiro whispers in awe, before passing out.


	5. Chapter Four: Hell Incarnate

TangentOne: You got your bloodshed.

TangentTwo: Oh goodie! You know how I _love_ my bloodshed!

TangentOne: Aye, more than fucking anything that moves. Surprisingly…

TangentTwo: Did I hear something the Almighty Tangent would love to hear?

TangentOne: You can't hide behind the Almighty forever, Two.

TangentTwo: You want to make a bet, One? ***Giggles***

* * *

"You made a mistake. One that will cost you everything." Kiyoshi promises.

The Bear Sage steels himself.

"Do you know who I am? What I am? Even with whatever that is, I will win!" The man responds, taking a fighting stance for the first time.

"I wouldn't be," Kiyoshi shoots forward at a speed unrecognizable and stops millimeters from his face with a hand to the man's throat. "So sure of that."

He winces, he hadn't expected the speed. Regardless, he was sure he could win, or at least get away to fight another day. Kiyoshi grips the man's throat tightly, causing him to choke, and on impulse punched Kiyoshi in the stomach. Kiyoshi's grip released and he flew back twenty feet, say whatever you want about the man's morals, he can punch like… well a bear.

Kiyoshi took the chance to look at Kojiro, noticing the blood pouring out of his back at an alarming rate. He looked to Riborubā who had just shown up and nodded towards Kojiro. The large Ocelot moved towards Kojiro slyly, trying to avoid the fight so he can leave quickly.

The Sage would not let that happen, he smirked and launched towards Riborubā, expecting little to no resistance from the large cat. One less enemy to worry about. Upon reaching the large feline, he found the spot empty, along with Kojiro and the rest of the team. Kiyoshi grinned.

"You really didn't think that would work, did you? Bears are more stupid than they let on." Kiyoshi remarked, much to the annoyance of the large man.

"Listen closely, you fucking _child_. You may have flaming hair, but you're looking at Matsura Hideo. The First Perfect Sage of the Bears. My strength is unparalleled, even by a tailed beast." The man huffed.

"Look at my face, _Hideo,_ do you really see someone who gives a flying fuck?" Kiyoshi retorts. "Either way, enough chatter. I don't like seeing your fat wave as you speak."

"How fucking dare you!" Hideo roars, flying through hand seals.

"That's more like it! I like a challenge!" Kiyoshi returns, flying through his own set of seals.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!" They both yell at the same time.

Two gigantic elemental dragons form opposite each other, and once they did, it was apparent Hideo's was slightly larger.

"Ha! Kill them!" He orders the liquid dragon forward.

"Don't get too full of yourself, size isn't everything." Kiyoshi remarks, ordering his own dragon to attack.

The two monstrous dragons collide in the air, spraying both opponents with the water from their crash. The dissipate midair and the water falls back to the lake in an elaborate display. Kiyoshi had already finished another set of hand seals, grabbing a large portion of the falling water with his chakra and forming them into water bullets. He launches the bullets at the unexpecting Sage and creates another twenty water clones to surround his enemy. By the time all the water from the dragons hit the lake, the Bear Sage was surrounded and had a few holes in his furs.

As the battle halted for a few seconds, Kiyoshi noticed the furs on the man's shoulders. A tiger, and a large one at that. One of his summons. The veins around his body started to pulse in unrestrained rage.

"Not only have you put my brother on his deathbed, you're wearing my summons as a _cloak._ I swear to the Great Sage I will _slaughter_ you and everything in relation to you!" Kiyoshi roars.

Hideo locked on to the real Kiyoshi, as water clones can't speak. He smiled and shot forward again, this time running through three hand seals before reaching his opponent. As he stopped in front of Kiyoshi, he threw a quick jab into his stomach, finding the real Kiyoshi misplaced as the clone fell around his punch.

The Kiyoshi's all rushed forward and started their own independent barrage on Hideo's defenses. One by one they flew at him, and one by one they popped. On the final Kiyoshi, Hideo put more effort into his punch, expecting it to be the real one. His punch saw little resistance as the clone dispersed.

His eyes bulged and he started letting out heavy breaths. He flew through seven more hand seals and his size doubled, ripping off the furs and undergarments. He looked to be fully enraged and bearlike, rough brown fur covered his whole body and a snout grew from his face.

"Show yourself child!" He yelled to the lake, voice penetrating the waters below where Kiyoshi stayed.

Kiyoshi emerged thirty feet from the bear-like man, who gave no warning as he charged towards him. Hideo was upon Kiyoshi in less than a second, his frenzy had made his sense disappear and he now attacked in a full out attack. His attacks did some damage to Kiyoshi's defence, but more importantly, he left himself wide open many times to a riposte from Kiyoshi. Slowly, both parties began to wear down and the backed off, staring at each other through maddened eyes.

"No one has ever lasted this long before." Hideo remarks.

"The same for me." Kiyoshi replies, not forgetting his hatred.

Both men fell to a single knee, clearly the damage they had dealt to each other was more than they realized. Kiyoshi smirked and chuckled as his hair fell back to black, and his eyes reverted to their full red state. Hideo returned the chuckle as his form reverted back to a human one, and the fur on his body flew off in the wind.

"This isn't over, child." Hideo states.

"You bet your fucking weight it isn't." Kiyoshi agrees.

The two men stand at once and run in opposite directions, both hoping to see the other soon. Neither man wanted to leave that situation as it was.

 _Fucking hell._ Kiyoshi thought as he ran back towards the camp.

Kiyoshi returned to the camp two minutes later, waving off any treatment from the concerned felines. He strode past them quickly and into the large tent that served as their headquarters. The relief he felt when he saw Kojiro bandaged and breathing was immense. Then he quickly passed out.

* * *

Kiyoshi awoke first, his wounds were nowhere near as severe, just small scratches and superficial wounds. It was the exhaustion that got to him. He flexed his chakra finding he had less than a third of normal, but shrugged it off. They had survived, again. He sat up in his hammock and flew his feet off, standing quickly. Kojiro was still asleep as he approached. When Kiyoshi touched the bandages, he found them fresh and thanked whoever had done it.

He pulled a chair from the center of the room and stuck it next to Kojiro's bed. He sat down and began to reconstruct the fight he had with the sage in his mind. He went over everything, multiple times. There had to be something that he could use to finish him off before Kojiro awoke. The thought of sending his brother back out there while still recovering, was one he didn't want to entertain.

Riborubā strode in, and took in the scene with a sigh.

"Kiyoshi, you may as well train." He states simply.

"I am." Kiyoshi replies intelligently.

"How's that?" Riborubā asks curiously. To him, it just looked like Kiyoshi was deep in thought.

"I'm going over my battle with the sage, I need something, something I can use to fight him. His defense is remarkable, along with his attacking power. Both ninjutsu and taijutsu are near perfect. His speed is lacking, but it's still fast. He's a very potent enemy." Kiyoshi explains offhandedly, keeping his focus on the fight.

"You can actually have thoughts like this?" Riborubā asks somewhat playfully.

"I've always been able to, it's just not me. When the situation is this tense though, I need to be serious, whether I like it or not." He explains, much to the large Ocelots pleasure.

"I know, and it's the main reason I like you. You know when it's time to play, and when it's time to work. The two just seem a little blurred for you." He chuckles.

"Unless you having something constructive to say, let me work." Kiyoshi replies blandly.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be outside." The large feline states, leaving the tent to let Kiyoshi brood and think.

Hours passed in a blur, Kiyoshi went over the battle many times, trying to ascertain some kind of weakness. One he could exploit easily, or at least quickly. Then, Kojiro stirred. Kiyoshi's concentration broke immediately, and he looked to his brother. Kojiro's eyes fluttered open and he took in his surroundings, landing his gaze on Kiyoshi's extremely upset face.

"You utter fucking moron." Kiyoshi chides.

"Save it for when I'm not nearly dead…" Kojiro barely whispers out. "Water, please."

Kiyoshi sighs and retrieves Kojiro's flask from the table in the center of the room, and moves over to him. He uncapped the flask and handed it to Kojiro. At least he attempted to, Kojiro couldn't raise his arms yet, so he resorted to giving the water to him on his own.

"Better?" Kiyoshi asks once he took the flask away.

Kojiro nods.

"Good, don't expect me to give you water ever again like that. I'm not your mother." He states simply, topping the flask and setting it in his lap once he sat down.

"What happened?" Kojiro queries.

"I fought him, it ended in a stalemate and we both left." He answered simply.

"It's not like you to leave someone alive." Kojiro remarks, still whispering faintly.

"I didn't have a choice, if I wanted to see you again at least." Kiyoshi says lightly.

"Right… and the others?" Kojiro continues his tirade of questions.

"They're fine, now for a question of my own. Why the fuck didn't you wait for me?"

"I knew I could hold him off til you got there, I didn't think I'd come this close to death though." Kojiro answers.

"That's... " Kiyoshi sighs. As much as he wants to chastise his brother, he can't. He would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed.

Kojiro passes out quickly after that, in an actual slumber. Kiyoshi sighs again and goes back to his thoughts.

* * *

Kojiro awoke again to an empty room, enough strength had returned to him to attempt standing, which he succeeded in doing. He flexed the small amount of chakra he had left, wincing as he nearly expended himself from that simple task. He sighs and walks out of the tent where the sunlight pierced his eyes. He raises a hand to cover his eyes and searches around, finding few living beings.

One of the bats flies over from the treeline and lands on Kojiro's head, keeping his wings unfurled and grasps at the sides of his face to hang on.

"Do you know where my brother is?" Kojiro asks the flying fox.

"Yes, summoner," he starts, raising a winged arm just in Kojiro's vision and points towards the direction of the natural springs. "He's over there."

"Thank you… can you lend me some chakra? I'm running low." Kojiro asks the bat.

Kojiro could feel the animals head nod as he launched into the air and screeched at the other pteropines. Quickly all the flying foxes were fluttering around Kojiro and lending him their chakra through a special medical jutsu. The process took a minute before the bats flew back to the tree, huffing and tired.

"We would give you more, but we cannot for fear of our lives." The same bat says.

Kojiro flexes his chakra, finding it near topped out.

"This was way more than I needed, thank you, and never do that again while we're in this kind of situation." Kojiro chastises.

"Sorry summoner, we will not fail you again." The bat states quickly.

"You didn't fail me, far from it. Just make sure to take care of yourselves." Kojiro states simply.

The bat nods and hurries off back to the treeline, huffing worse than his unit-mates. Kojiro enters heaven path, or tries to. He finds himself unable to feel the muscle required to phase in. He curses loudly, and sets off towards the natural spring as fast as he could without his path.

The trip took four minutes, significantly longer than he had wanted, but he found Kiyoshi easily enough, swimming near the springs entrance. Kiyoshi dived down into the spring itself, feeling the coldness of the water on his skin, reminding him of his first day at the academy where they taught the students to swim. He surfaces quickly once he notices Kojiro's presence and headed towards his brother with a stern look.

Once near the shore, he climbed onto the surface of the water and stared at Kojiro maliciously.

"Who said you could get out of bed?" He asked rhetorically.

"I'm fine, my wounds are healed and I'm near topped out on chakra due to the bats. You want to tell me what the fuck that mode was when you came to save me?" Kojiro asked angrily, he wasn't in the mood to be chastised.

"Shit, you remember that? I was hoping you hadn't." Kiyoshi sighs and sits down on the bank, letting his feet fall into the springs water.

Kojiro walks to him and sits down, back to back, with his brother.

"More importantly, why can't I use my paths?" Kojiro asks, more concerned about the lack of his Kekkei Genkai.

"That's a side effect from nearly dying, it'll come back soonish." Kiyoshi states simply.

"I won't ask how you know that, but nonetheless, what about my first question?" Kojiro pushes.

"Fucking fairy dust and gumdrops. Damn good gumdrops too." Kiyoshi says jokingly, hoping to shift the mood.

"We both nearly died, I'm not even sure how you can stand to be jovial." Kojiro says tiredly.

"That's simple, it's because I'm too busy focusing on how to kill the cunt." Kiyoshi grates his teeth at the mention of Hideo.

"Stop evading, Kiyoshi." Kojiro pesters.

"Fine, you really are a pesky fuck sometimes. It's an advanced form of Hell Path. Well, more accurately it's the true form." Kiyoshi relents.

"The _true_ path? When did you get it? How long have you kept this from me?" Kojiro interrogates.

"The day I put our father in the ground. I'm sure you're capable of simple math." Kiyoshi answers, ignoring part of the question.

"You had to kill family to get it? Fucking Sage, that's brutal. At least it was that fucking piece of shit, you've soured the mood with mention of him." Kojiro seethes, rubbing his shoulder.

"I had it as I killed him, it was a byproduct of my rage, nothing more." Kiyoshi explains.

"I've been enraged before, why haven't I gotten my own 'Hell Incarnate'?" Kojiro questions.

"Fuck if I know. I don't fully understand how I got it." Kiyoshi offers up.

"That's not acceptable. You can't keep something this fucking big from me nearly our whole lives if it's about _our_ Kekkei Genkai. What if there are negative effects?" He pesters further.

"The only negative is it hurts to piss after I use it." Kiyoshi banters, a slight grin betraying his once stoic features.

"Oh for fucks sake! Sage help me… if you're going to be like this we may as well talk about something productive. What did you find out about the Bear Sage? I know you well enough to know you've thought about the battle." Kojiro changes the subject.

"Well, I know he's a fat fuck. Like seriously, how does someone that fat move like that? It betrays the laws of this world!" Kiyoshi shoots off, his mind alone in his own messed up world.

"I already knew that, and I agree completely. It's fucking miraculous. Though, I'm talking about his combat abilities, what did you find out about that?" Kojiro questions again.

"He can fight, all of his abilities are perfect, or fucking close. His taijutsu is flawless, his ninjutsu perfect. The only thing he really lacked was speed, but as we just agreed, he can still fucking move." Kiyoshi details the Bear Sages abilities.

"Interesting, maybe we can exploit his speed somehow. He is fast, but we're faster. Unless there's something you kept from me?" Kojiro hits the bullseye.

"Oh yeah, he can turn himself into a bear. Like a really fat bear. You can see the fat wobble as he speaks. It's fucking off putting to say the least." Kiyoshi finishes his detailing.

"Does it make him faster, or just stronger?" Kojiro asks.

"Both, but he becomes wild." Kiyoshi returns.

"Even better, generally when people are frenzied they can't control their targets. Making them unpredictable, in most cases I would say that's a bonus for them. When against us, though…" Kojiro enters a deep thought process.

"The point. Do you fucking have it?" Kiyoshi shouts at Kojiro, slamming the back of his head into Kojiro.

"Ow, you fucking asshole! Ugh, it means that we can take advantage of his cockiness. If we can get him to a state that makes him wild, I can constantly pepper him with small attacks. He'll charge me, knowing from previous experience that I'll be an easy target. If he's frenzied he could forget you existed and we could double team him and push him towards his death." Kojiro explains.

"I prefer the simple, slit his throat and spit on his corpse method." Kiyoshi barters.

"The day our summons fall is the day you resort to my methods for assassination." Kojiro states.

"Fine, decapitate and _then_ spit on the corpse. When did you become so fussy?" Kiyoshi retorts.

"This is just the first tactic that came to mind, I can think of more if you need something less _obtuse._ " Kojiro jests.

"I've got an idea, I'll kill him, you know, spit on his corpse and all. While you stay way the fuck away. Sounds like a plan right?" Kiyoshi quips.

"What? You've never kept me from a fight before. Even my first fucking mission was an A-rank assassination mission!" Kojiro says hurriedly, standing quickly to look at his brother.

"How about you do as you're fucking told. This is no longer our fight, it's mine." Kiyoshi declares, his killing intent flaring.

"That's where you're wrong. It's not our fight, it's not _your_ fight. It's our summons, and they asked for _our_ help." Kojiro retorts, flexing his own killing intent.

"No, that's where _you're_ wrong. That fat fuck not only brought you close to death, he has killed a countless number of my summons. That fuck is mine to kill and mine alone. No more will die by his hands." Kiyoshi seethes.

"How do you think you're going to keep me here?" Kojiro asks, anger rising steadfast.

"If I have to order the bats and cats to hold you back, I'll fucking do it. You will not face him, I refuse to allow you to. Riborubā owes me after keeping tabs on me without telling me." Kiyoshi promises.

"If this is how you want to play it, then I guess I'll just go back to Kiri. I have some unfinished business with someone anyway." Kojiro threatens.

"Then get the fuck out of this realm." Kiyoshi barks, picking himself up and launching himself back into the spring.

 _I can't believe this._ Kojiro thinks as he releases his reverse summon anchoring him to this world.


	6. Chapter Five: Unfinished Business

TangentOne: Sibling trouble, sounds like a debacle.

TangentTwo: Debacle? What a fucking word! Holy shit, that's amazing.

TangentOne: You've never heard the word 'debacle' before?

TangentTwo: Only pompous fucks say it, and I'm me, so no. It's a fucking hilarious word though.

* * *

Kojiro bristled as he appeared back in his apartment. Instantly something felt off, and he looked outside. The rebellion had been quelled near a month ago. Yet the people seemed far too optimistic, the streets were bustling with activity. Kojiro left his apartment after changing into a fresh set of clothes and knocked on his closest neighbors door. A vertically challenged man answered it with a scowl.

"What the fuck do you want, Kojiro?" Kenichi asked a scowl plastered on his face.

"Give me that tone again, and I swear to the fucking _Great Sage_ you will not survive. I'm not in the fucking mood. Now to get to the point, why are the people _busy_ and _happy_ looking?" Kojiro asks with near bloodshot rage.

"The Mizukage ended the bloody graduations. People are celebrating, now if you'll excuse me." Kenichi closes the door on Kojiro's face, trying to avoid the wrath of the younger brother.

Kojiro sighs, it would be a waste of time to kill Kenichi. As much as he hates him, he's a good hunter-nin, and one that always gets the job done. He knocks on the door again, much to the chagrin of the short man. The door opens swiftly, showing a slightly peeved face.

"Is Mei Terumi still imprisoned?" Kojiro asks, avoiding pleasantries.

"Why wouldn't she? Fucking traitor." He spits on the ground.

"Good," Kojiro says, walking away. "Very, very good."

Kojiro heard the door slam behind him as he enters the elevator. A smile creeps onto his features, plastering his face in shadow and malicious intent. The elevator doors close.

* * *

Kojiro moves throughout the streets of Kiri with a well-practiced ease. A bubble of air forms around him as he walks, people know a hunter-nin when they see one, and they give them a wide berth. He comes to a familiar alleyway, and walks to the banged and bruised metal door at the end. He knocks in a pattern of one-three-nine. The knock pattern of rebellion members.

To his surprise, it worked. He had thought this hideout would have been abandoned. Luckily, it wasn't. The sliding slit in the door opened, and a set of eyes filled the space.

"Hunter-sama, you're with the rebellion?" The man asks nervously.

"I have business with Gozou, is he in?" Kojiro asks as businesslike as he could muster in his emotional state.

Clearly it wasn't that businesslike, as the man's skin around his eyes paled considerably.

"R-right away!" He shuts the door slit and opens the door wide to let Kojiro pass.

Kojiro ignores the shivering man, who stood at near seven foot and dwarfed him. Even a genin could kill him, civilians are nothing but a money and food generator. Kojiro doesn't wait for an escort, he enters the room he was in before and sits down on the couch. If Gozou was smart, he'd run away. If he was intelligent, he would stay and ask what Kojiro wanted.

Many minutes passed with no sign of human contact, and this time Kojiro was sure to flare his sensing ability to search the room for shinobi presence. The door to the lounge opened wide and the monstrous man that is Gozou stood in the frame. He ducked down to enter the room and acknowledged Kojiro with a nod before sitting down.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Stalker of the Mist, Vampire of Kiri and Hunter-nin Kawaguchi Kojiro?" Gozou states easily, leaning back into his couch.

"You flatter me, Gozou. Luckily for you, I'm not here to kill you. At least not until our conversation has decided whether or not I do." Kojiro replies, unsheathing one of his kunai and flipping it like so long ago.

"And what of this conversation?" Gozou seemed relaxed, too relaxed.

"The rebellion is still alive, isn't it?" Kojiro asks, ignoring the invisible signature that entered the room with expertise.

"If it is, what is that information worth to you?" Gozou questions, leaning forward onto his knees.

"You're selling rebellion information? _Naughty._ It's worth your life, so you tell me however much that is worth to you." Kojiro states.

"The Rebellion's activity, or lack thereof, is worth way more than my life. You know that." Gozou retorts.

"Is it worth your sanity? I know ways to make a man feel more pain than you can imagine. If you withstand it, you'll give me the answers I want, but you'll be of no use to the Rebellion. You decide... Ah and to the other shinobi in here, I'll give you one chance to leave before I slit your throat." Kojiro simply says.

The shinobi revealed himself, the hitai-ate of Kiri wrapped around his forehead. He launched forward to the expectant Kojiro, who with one throw of a kunai, sliced the man's head off clean.

"Messy… well, that's what wind natured chakra will do to an unexpectant shinobi," Kojiro says solemnly, remembering the shinobi from his promotion to Hunter-nin. The man was nearly chosen as one himself. "Regardless, I suppose that answers my question. That's all I really wanted to know, and had you answered me straight then I wouldn't have to kill you."

Gozou had gone deathly pale, he thought a man qualified to be a hunter-nin could at least put up a fight to the younger Kawaguchi. His sweat dropped freely as the temperature drop in the room chilled him to the bone. The killing intent directed at him felt piercing and calculating. Kojiro jolted forward and swung another kunai in an arc at Gozou's neck.

"Wait!" Gozou yelled as Kojiro's next kunai broke the skin on his neck superficially.

"What?" Kojiro asks impatiently.

"I know this is a weird request, but I always knew I would die serving in the rebellion. If you could make sure my daughter survives through what's to come, then I would be indebted to you, even after death." Gozou states calmly, clearly starting to recognize his position and resigning himself to it.

"You want your _killer_ to look after your daughter? Are you insane?" Kojiro asks honestly.

"I may well be, but her mother died in the last rebellions attempt. She has no family left, and she's awakened her chakra. I was tempted to send her to the academy now that the bloody graduation is over… but she's so much older than the others." He says, lowering his gaze.

"So you not only want me to _look after_ her, you want me to _train_ her?" Kojiro queries befuddled.

"Only until she can take care of herself… please? It's all that I have left to offer this world." Gozou pleads, a tear rolling down his exceptionally masculine face down to his forceful jaw.

"It's unseemly to see a man cry, get a hold of yourself. You're only dying. On that note, I suppose I could look after her for a while. I'm assuming she'd be at your house?" Kojiro acquiesces to the older and larger man.

"Yes, oh thank you! Thank the Great Sage…" His tears flowed freely now, and he seemed genuinely happy.

"Well… this has been the most awkward murder I've ever committed, but I'll see you in the afterlife. Wherever that takes you, old man." Kojiro mutters, dragging the kunai across Gozou's throat, spilling blood in the fashion of a waterfall.

 _If nothing else comes of training her, at least she'll prove to piss Kiyoshi off._ Kojiro thinks maliciously as he plucks his thrown kunai from the wall and cleans both with a quick swipe of a cloth.

* * *

Kojiro strides into the mission complex on the ground floor of the Hunter-nin lodges. Swiftly maneuvering to the information desk, he slams his hand down on the table, drawing the info-dealers eyes away from a Chunin and to the Hunter-nin. The Chunin readies himself to yell at Kojiro, but one look at the mark on his neck sent him walking away in frustration.

"What can I help you with, Hunter-sama?" The info-dealer asks politely.

"I need the address of a man named Hasegawa Gozou." Kojiro states simply, it's the first time he's needed to use the desk. All of his previous missions have been outside of Kiri.

"Hasegawa Gozou? Let me take a look." The middle-aged man types the name on a primitive computer and pulls up a file of people with the name 'Hasegawa.' He sifts through the file for a short time before procuring the specific man Kojiro had asked for.

"He lives on Seventh, house number seven-one-four. That will be one-hundred-ten ryo." The man states, offering a hand for payment.

"Shove it, if you want the money bring it up to the Kage." Kojiro waves him off and leaves the building for the address he had been given, much to the chagrin of the info-broker.

He flew atop the rooftops, landing one foot at a time. The travel was quick, and his thoughts made it quicker. He bristled again thinking of his brother forbidding him from the fight. While he threatened to have the bats stop Kojiro, they wouldn't listen to him. The felines though, Kojiro's sure they would have, and there's no way he and the pteropines could win without killing one of his summons. It was a lose-lose for Kojiro.

Eventually he lands at the address the broker stated, and walks up to the door briskly. His disdain for his situation caused his face to be plastered in a scowl, and when the door opened the young women who answers backed away in fright. She was vertically challenged, which seemed odd for a daughter of someone as tall as Gozou. Her mother must have been even shorter. Kojiro sighed and removed the scowl, replacing it with a reluctant smile which seemed to calm the young woman a bit.

"Hi there, Gozou has told me you awakened your chakra. He asked me to train you so you could protect yourself, and that's what I'm here to do. Whether you like it or not, I'm your new Shishou and you're my new apprentice. Welcome to Shinobi One-O'-One." Kojiro explains hoping he sounded nicer than he felt.

The young woman's face fell into sadness. Her dark eyes searched Kojiro's words for any sense of falsity, finding none she flopped to her knees and her long blonde hair flowed behind her dramatically. Then she started bawling her eyes out. Kojiro cursed himself, the last thing he needs is to deal with a crying woman.

"Father... he said he would wait, that I wouldn't have to subject myself to the torture. At least not until the rebellion had won, when things would be better!" She cried easily, tears flowing more free than Gozou had when he died.

"Well, see the issue with that, is that he's dead. It was his dying wish, and I'm not going to break it because you _don't want to._ " Kojiro said bluntly hoping to send the girl into shock, so she would stop crying. It worked.

"Father..? He's dead..? That… that can't be…" She drifted off, her eyes glazing over as shock reigned over her body.

"Believe it, you have two choices. You can get up and walk with me, or I throw you over my shoulder and carry you. Decide now." Kojiro demands, not caring about the girls feelings. His only purpose was to train her slightly, and keep her around just long enough for Kiyoshi to meet her and get beyond miffed.

The young woman just knelt there, looking at the sky through the door frame with free flowing silent tears. Kojiro sighed, knowing the answer. He walked forward and threw the girl over his shoulder with little resistance. He looked around the front room, and guessed that shoes would be useful so he wouldn't have to buy them later. He picked up the smallest pair and launched back to the Mission Tower.

* * *

Kojiro walks through the mission floor with a large number of eyes carefully watching his every move. It's rare to see a Ninja bring a civilian back to their room. Even more rare is a hunter-nin doing so. It's not unheard of, stories of ninja taking civilians off the streets to keep as house pets or slaves. While they may suspect that's what is happening, Kojiro knows he's taken a huge risk. If the girl doesn't catch on fast, there's no way he'll be able to stand her.

He sighs as he enters the elevator and scowls at the people who tried to enter after him. They let him be, watching his scowl disappear as it was replaced by stainless steel. The elevator jerked upwards, causing his stomach to drop, and then abruptly stopped at his floor causing it to fly. A feeling he had gotten used to, and felt some minor comfort from it. It usually meant he's either about to go on another mission, or coming home from a successful one.

He strode through the hallway lined with doors, cracks in the walls between each wooden door. He stops in front of his apartment, the third on the left from the elevator, and turns the doorknob, opening the average door. He threw the still in shock girl on the floor and watched as she curled into a fetal position on her side.

"Look, I don't really care what you're going through. I promise it's nowhere near the pinnacle of what you're _going_ to go through in the future. So snap out of this and cry or something. Get it out of your system so I can talk to you like a person, and hurry the fuck up about it." Kojiro orders, moving to his bed and sitting down, twirling his feet onto the bed and leaning against the wall..

Kojiro pulls out a book and begins reading, knowing full well that the girl won't be ready for training until she has recovered from her shock. He read for an hour before the girl shuddered and began bawling again, he tuned out the noise with concentrated chakra just outside his ears, effectively deafening himself. He continued to read peacefully.

Another thirty minutes passed before the girl sat up and looked in his direction, which he caught and released the chakra and set down the book.

"What are you going to do to me?" She asks weakly.

"Train you to be a damn good Kunoichi. Or at least a somewhat capable one. It depends on how fast you learn." Kojiro responds simply, throwing his legs off the side of the bed and moving towards her.

"What if… what if I don't want to learn?" She questions, her voice near a whisper.

"Like I said earlier, it was Gozou's deathwish. While I hated the man, I tend to keep my promises. You have no say, no choice in the matter, and if you try to run, or intentionally impare your ability to learn, there will be consequences," Kojiro threatens. "What's your name?"

"Hasegawa Asuka…" She replies weakly.

"Great well, _Asuka_ , stand up. Show me what you know of chakra and the control of it. Make a chakra light." Kojiro orders.

"Okay…" She acquiesces, standing only to be slapped back down, hard.

"Not 'okay', never 'okay'. You will respect me, it's 'yes Kojiro-sama'. Surely you can handle that." Kojiro chastises.

Asuka cradles the red mark on the left side of her face while standing back up.

"Yes, Kojiro-sama." She says tiredly.

"That's better, make a chakra light." Kojiro orders again.

She moves her arm forward, gathering her chakra into her palm just barely dense enough to make a light source before becoming dizzy and swirling on her heels. She fell backwards onto her behind, and yelped in pain.

Kojiro sighs, it was worse than he thought. She'd have to be trained completely different to the way Kiyoshi taught him. He grew up with a larger than average chakra reserve, and practiced the basics of control relentlessly to be able to use their Kekkei Genkai. When he was her age, which seemed to be a year or two under his own, he was already a Jonin.

"Stand up, go sleep. You can use the bed I wasn't laying in, I need to think of a plan." Kojiro demanded, assuming she had not learned self-defense and plotting to put that in morning practices.

"Yes, Kojiro-sama." She says, standing up from the floor, and catching herself on the wall.

Kojiro hardly noticed, he was more focused on the near future, planning out his new apprentice's training menu. She walked on wobbly legs to Kiyoshi bed, and plopped down quickly, sleeping nearly as soon as her head hit the pillow.

"Fucking civilians and their worthless contribution to shinobi life." Kojiro curses, heading back to his own bed and sleeping on top of it.

* * *

Kojiro awoke to a feminine face peering down to him on his bed, dark eyes and blonde hair, a short stature. It didn't click immediately, and grabbed her by the throat and flipped her over onto the bead. He straddled her as he pressed a kunai to her neck, superficially wounding the skin exactly the same as her father.

 _Her father._ Kojiro remembered.

He peered down at the deathly pale form below him and remembered his promise. Filled with regret instantly, he got off her and sheathed his kunai.

"I would apologize, but you'll soon learn never to do that to _any_ shinobi. Startling them as they wake is never good for your health." Kojiro states simply, walking to his kitchenette and grabbing a cup of tap water.

"I think that was the first lesson I learned." She said meekly, raising herself from the bed and moving to the kitchenette. She stood just a few feet from her father's murderer, and she had no way of knowing.

"We're going to start with muscle-building and then taijutsu. That's for the first four hours, we'll then take a thirty minute break for brunch and go to work for eight hours on chakra control. Another thirty minute break for dinner and then it's sparring for two hours before we sleep and repeat the process the next day." Kojiro explains, taking a sip from his cup.

"That's a lot of training…" Asuka remarks.

"That's par for the course. Shinobi never stop training, even Kage," Kojiro finishes his water before throwing the paper cup into the can and moving to the front door. "Hurry up." He calls over his shoulder.

Asuka looks at the tap longingly before following her newly acquired Shishou. She follows a pace behind him and a pace to the right, making sure to stay out of his way. Kojiro calls the elevator and waits patiently for it to open, when it does he steps aboard and motions for Asuka to do the same who boards quickly.

The familiar rise and drop of Kojiro's stomach placate his mind somewhat, glad he's back in Kiri. The elevator stops on the ground floor where few ninja were huddled this early in the morning. At five thirty, very few people wanted to work, though this time made the most money on missions because of that.

The two moved through the ground floor relatively unseen, before a vertically challenged Kenichi stops in front of Kojiro.

"Where's Kiyoshi? And who's the new girl?" Kenichi asks bluntly.

"Kiyoshi is off dealing with his own shit, and this girl is none of your business." Kojiro answers.

"Oh? Not even for ten-thousand ryo?" Kenichi pulls out a wad of cash.

Asuka gulps, it wasn't a lot of money, especially not for her family, but with shinobi she had no idea what that was worth.

"You're fucking insane if you think that pitiful amount is enough to let me sell her. Besides, even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I'm bound by a promise." Kojiro waves off the money and nods to Asuka to continue moving.

Kenichi sighs and walks away as Kojiro and Asuka leave the mission floor in favor of the misty outside air. Kojiro takes in the scent, the sight and sounds much more deeply, now that he has calmed a bit. He smiles, he may hate his brother right now, but Kiri always makes him feel better.

"Don't you love this Village?" Kojiro asks rhetorically to no one.

"Y-yes, Kojiro-sama." He hears a squeak from his apprentice.

He sighs and his smile fades, the mood was ruined. He walked towards the nearest training grounds, most shinobi avoid it for it's widely known to be Hell Incarnate's favorite training spot. It was rather small due to its proximity to the mission building, but that mattered little for training Asuka, if anything it was a boon.

They reached the field a little later than he wanted, though only by a few minutes. He turned to face Asuka and sized her up and down for the first time. She was short, which belied her relation to Gozou, but nonetheless she was his daughter. A trait they shared similar was muscle build. She was wearing a slightly loose short teal dress with no sleeves, showing her toned arms and legs. She wore standard sandals, as that's what Kojiro picked.

Kojiro draws a border around the training area, the circumference was about half a mile.

"You're to do six laps, then come to me and do sixty pushups and situps. Then we'll move from there to whatever I think needs work. Go." Kojiro orders.

"Yes, Kojiro-sama." Asuka replies, falling in line quickly.

 _At least she understands her role in this. I wonder when she'll ask about her father's death?_ Kojiro's face darkens as a scowl creeps onto it. _Probably when she's less scared to face the truth that he's dead._


	7. Chapter Six: Realizations

TangentOne: What do you think of Kojiro's new apprentice?

TangentTwo: I don't think Kiyoshi will keep her alive, but she's cute at the very least.

TangentOne: Why would Kiyoshi kill her?

TangentTwo: A feeling in my funny bone!

TangentOne: Of course, what else could it be? An actual answer? Oh no... that would be too much to ask for.

* * *

As soon as Kojiro had reverse summoned himself back to Kiri, Kiyoshi made his way back to the shore. Again sitting on the turf with his legs bobbing in the spring.

 _Why can't he see this from my perspective?_ Kiyoshi wonders to himself, for once thinking without his usual charm.

A large feline makes its presence known by body flickering into the scene.

"Have you seen Kojiro?" Riborubā asks, sitting himself next to Kiyoshi.

"I sent him back to Kiri." Kiyoshi states blandly, his eyes locked onto the lake.

"Why would you send him home? We're in the middle of a war, and you think it wise to send one of our strongest assets and warriors home?" Riborubā argues..

"Let me think. Because he nearly fucking died? Yeah that's a good enough reason. If I could, I'd send all of you home and deal with the fat fuck myself." Kiyoshi fires back at Riborubā, his killing intent flaring and his eyes turning block red.

"Sometimes you really need to open yourself to the people around you. Kojiro feels the same about you, he worries and you act as if you alone feel the burden of the others safety," Riborubā starts, moving himself next to Kiyoshi and maintaining eye contact. "You need to understand that simple fact, doing so will free the burdens you carry."

"I didn't ask for a fucking life lesson, Riborubā. I just need to perfect my usage of Hell Incarnate. With it I'll kill that Bear Sage cunt and slaughter all those close to him. All while keeping Kojiro safe." Kiyoshi seethes, anger flaring his killing intent further.

Kiyoshi's hair starts to tinge red, flaring upwards. His sclera turn void black, black markings appear around his eyes and bridge his nose. Kiyoshi enters Hell Incarnate of his own willpower for the first time. The power radiating from him is slight stronger then it was while in his fight with the Bear Sage, Hideo.

He lashes his killing intent to its fullest, standing and walking to the center of the spring. The intent feels much akin to his intent during the first fight, only larger and more imposing than before. Even Riborubā is noticeably on edge while looking on at Kiyoshi trying to gain full control over his only real chance at beating the Bear Sage without his brother in the way.

Riborubā sits again, carefully watching his summoner push every limit he has. The spring itself was feeling the strain of his training. The surface bubbling around Kiyoshi's feet. The air around him becoming heated and blurring whatever lies on the other side of the viewers vision. Kiyoshi starts to perform hand seals for a jutsu, wanting to test his abilities while in his True Path.

"Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu." Kiyoshi voices lowly, allowing a deep and thick mist to cover the spring and a large portion of the bank surrounding it.

Riborubā closes his eyes once the fog invades his position, allowing his innate sensory ability to take over. He surveys the entire area and them some. He is able to sense for miles around himself, distinguishing between friend and foe at glance. He's able to sense Kiyoshi, who is again flying through hand seals for another jutsu.

"Hell Release: Water Dragon Whip." Kiyoshi utters next.

He holds his arm out to his side, allowing water to wrap itself around it and forming a whip thirty metres in length. The whip itself laid atop the lake, never merging, holding itself together with large amount of pulsing red chakra. The end of the whip shaped like the elemental dragons he's so fond of. Kiyoshi starts to spin the whip above his head, the mist holding firm. With each revolution of the whip, the mist thickens, replacing the area where the whip was. After a few moments he lashes out with the whip at the spring, cutting it in half, parting the water itself. Creating a fissure that passes through the spring, around a hundred meters in length.

"It's not enough!" Kiyoshi roars out, letting the whip merge with the spring and again flying through more hand seals. "Hell Release: Raging Storm of the Dragon."

Kiyoshi takes a deep breath, focusing large proportions of chakra into his chest. He turns his head to face the sky, releasing his breath and the chakra with it, into the sky. Fire spews out, forming tens of Elemental fire dragons, each radiating the same aura as Kiyoshi himself. An aura that hell itself is said to radiate to those who are unfortunate to enter. Each Dragon was as large as Kiyoshi's normal elemental dragons, yet dwarfed them in power. The mist hiding their presence unless they were right in front of you.

Riborubā is still sitting at the edge of the now semi-destroyed spring. His eyes still closed sensing every move Kiyoshi makes. His demeanor was that of awe and worry. Awe of the power Kiyoshi is displaying and the serious killing intent that comes with his true path. Worry for the strain it's putting on his chakra network and his body.

After a minute of spewing fire into the sky, Kiyoshi finally stops, lowering his head. The fire dragons still flying around around thirty meters above him. He jumps back next to Riborubā, landing hard and cratoring the ground. Kiyoshi let's time pass, flexing his control over the dragons and pushing his abilities to their limits. Twenty minutes flies by before he finally holds his hand out in front of him, clenching his fist. The moment his fist finally closes, the dragons start to rain down onto the half destroyed spring. Each hitting and fulminating, changing the landscape in such a way that not even the strongest sage could return it to its previous state.

Upon the last of the dragons discharges, Kiyoshi exits Hell Incarnate, and falls to the floor unconscious. Riborubā grabs him by his collar, and throws him over his back, taking him back to the camp.

* * *

The next day Kiyoshi wakes up and finds himself back in his hammock. Riborubā sat beside his bed, currently strategizing while he waited for him to rouse. Kiyoshi pushes himself up, attempting to get up as his summon glares at him with mild annoyance.

"Where do you think you're going?" Riborubā asks, continuing his soul-piercing glare.

"Back to the spring to continue training, where the fuck else would I go?" Kiyoshi answers sassily.

"What spring? There's only craters where I dragged you from. Also why did you even try to go into your true path with only a third of your chakra? Do you have a deathwish I didn't know about?" Riborubā chastises him.

"I don't give a fuck how much chakra I had, I need to get stronger to kill the obese fuck, Hideo. This is the only way to do it." Kiyoshi states, standing up from his bed.

"Why don't you just get Kojiro back from Kiri? You've always done best as a team, it would make sense to confront the Bear Sage as such." Riborubā reasons.

"We've been over this, I'm doing this alone." Kiyoshi asserts as the flaps of the large tent opens.

Kōmori, a rather large bat enters, making his way straight to Kiyoshi and Riborubā, a worried look overtaking his face. Well, what Kiyoshi would guess a worried look would look like on a bat.

"Kiyoshi, do you have any idea why I can't find your brother?" Kōmori inquiries, Kojiro's personal summon.

"I sent him back to Kiri, and before you ask, no I'll not bring him back." Kiyoshi informs the bat.

"Why would you do such a thing? Riborubā did you know about this?" Kōmori asks.

"I found out yesterday. I decided to try and reason with Kiyoshi myself, but as you can see, it was to no avail." Riborubā remarks.

"What are we to do without him? What if there is another attack? We can't do anything without him, he's our commander!" Kōmori starts to panic.

"I'm still here, and I fully intend to kill the Bear Sage by myself. I refuse to bring Kojiro back until I can ensure his safety." Kiyoshi declares.

Both Kōmori and Riborubā stand contemplating Kiyoshi's words.

"We'll have to inform our respective leaders. I'm guessing Daisuke will not be happy, but he'll understand. Kōmori how do you think Shuryō will take the news that his summoner has been sent home by Kiyoshi?" Riborubā asks, still deep in thought.

"He'll want to know the exact reason. I honestly don't know what he'll think either way." Kōmori states while clicking his tongue flying out of the tent as he finishes.

"Why the fuck don't you trust my decision, Riborubā? I thought you'd understand." Kiyoshi voices, donning a fresh set of clothes and battle gear.

"I never said I didn't. It's just the war is my main focus at the moment, and your brother is a rather large piece of it whether you like it or not." Riborubā remarks, making his own way out of the tent.

Kiyoshi follows once his gear is all on. He looks over the scenery that surrounds the camp, this time with a much harsher outlook than when he first arrived. This had been hard on Kiyoshi, something he'd deny, yet the signs are there. He's more focused on fighting the Sage than he is in maintaining his jovial attitude, much to his displeasure.

After a few minutes Kiyoshi begins to head for the spring, or what's left of it. Riborubā takes note of his direction and heads off to inform Daisuke about the past few days events. The confrontation with the Bear Sage, the details of the injuries and losses sustained. Most of all Kiyoshi's current mental state. He's been like this before and that was not good for anyone, least of all Kiyoshi. This time it's different. He's still all there, still pushing himself and working towards a goal unlike last time.

* * *

Kiyoshi arrives at the spring in about a two minutes, flexing his heaven path for the extra speed. As he lands he is finally able to realise the true damage he had caused here the day before. Craters littering the field, the spring now two separate masses split with a fissure. The water from the spring occupying the fissure.

"So Hell Incarnate is as strong as I thought it was, and this was with only a third of my chakra. That Fat Sage is fucked the next time I see him," Kiyoshi mutters to himself, a malicious grin occupying his features. "Now how the fuck do I activate the True path?"

Kiyoshi sat himself down and began to enter a trance like thought. Trying to rebuild the battle with the Sage and yesterdays training, to see how he was able to achieve the form. He pushes himself further, remembering the day he slaughtered his own father like he was a bug under his sandal.

Time starts to fly by, minutes then hours passed unnoticed. Kiyoshi never once moved from his position, his eyes closed to help rebuild his memories. After ten hours of his deep mental training Riborubā had arrived to inform Kiyoshi of Daisuke thoughts on sending his brother home. The ocelot knew better than to interrupt so he laid himself down waiting for his summoner to exit his trance himself.

A further five hours pass before Kiyoshi emerges from his contemplating mind. Riborubā himself had fallen into a slumber, one Kiyoshi didn't find any problem waking him from.

"Oi, Riborubā! Wake the fuck up! You must be here for a reason?" Kiyoshi queries the half asleep Ocelot.

"Hm? Oh yes, I came to tell you what Daisuke thinks of your recent actions. Short version, he's understanding." Riborubā informs his summoner, much to his surprise.

"Wait, you're telling me that he's not mad or disappointed with me for a change?" Kiyoshi says with confusion.

"It seems he's rather happy with your handling of the issue. He knows how protective of Kojiro you are, he only asks that you think deeply on whether or not this is truly the right call. Before you answer, think about it, from all perspectives, not just your own for a change," Riborubā states, picking himself up to leave for the camp. "I'm returning to the camp, if you need me, you know what to do."

 _From all perspectives?_ Kiyoshi muses, completely ignoring Riborubā's goodbye.

The large Ocelot sprints towards the camp, leaving Kiyoshi completely alone to ponder on his words. Whether Kiyoshi would or not, only time would tell. After he finishes musing he sits himself down again, entering his trance like state again.

* * *

A couple of weeks pass before the summon realm, the war was turning out to be a lot worse than anyone could have expected. Every day, the cats and bats are losing ground, inch by inch. Since the Kawaguchi brothers confronted the Bear Sage, their attacks have only increased in intensity. Kiyoshi has had several encounters with the Bear Sage, Hideo, each more brutal than the last. Each ending in a stalemate. He's been able to enter his True Path each time, but only at a fraction of it's true strength. He's still hindered, but by what, he doesn't know.

Even though the Bears are winning the war, they have yet to seize any new territory. They've only had success in besting their enemies at the borders. Any attack into the cats or bats territory has proven to much, with Kiyoshi reacting to each of them. A total of seven raids into the cats and bats territories, with around seventeen skirmishes on the borders. The felines and pteropines are feeling the pressure, with injuries and losses mounting at a rate they cannot sustain for long. The bears have had losses too, but not of the same degree.

In his rather limited free time, Kiyoshi kept trying to enter and perfect his Hell Incarnate path. Some days pondering on what his summon said to him. Both were only slightly productive, yet neither fixed his personal and his summons issues. He may have accessed more of his True Path, but still not enough to face and kill Hideo. Something that angered him greatly.

In the command tent, a large ocelot comes into Kiyoshi's periphery and sits, staring intently at his summoner until he recognizes the new presence.

"Kiyoshi, we can't keep this up much longer, you need to bring Kojiro back." Riborubā demands.

"I can't. I don't know why anymore, but I can't allow myself to bring him here. I still feel the need to protect him, yet there's something else there too." Kiyoshi explains.

"This isn't a debate anymore, we need him!" Riborubā roars at his summoner, trying to break his melancholy.

"This was never a debate to start with, this is my decision not yours or the fucking leaders. All I need is a little more time and I'll be able to kill the fucking Sage." Kiyoshi fires back, letting his anger take ahold of him.

"No, the time I gave you is over, there is no option but to bring Kojiro back. We've suffered too many losses, just because we've lost little territory means nothing. I thought you'd understand since it's also your summons that are dying." Riborubā tactfully points out.

Kiyoshi doesn't respond. He stands still, a look of deep thought clearing the anger from his face. Moments pass, Riborubā waits silently for his summoner to come back to him. A few moments later, Kiyoshi snaps back to himself, a half hearted look of defeat adorning his features.

"Fine, I'll get him. You're right, I can't stand the fact the fat cunt and his summons are killing mine. I guess I'll have to push these issues of mine back for now." Kiyoshi concedes to Riborubā.

"Good, I'll inform Daisuke." Riborubā confirms, turning and leaving the tent.

Kiyoshi moves over to his hammock, lying down once there. Again he enters a deep thought. One filled with worries that he knows he has to push out of his mind. Maybe bringing his brother back will help alleviate the burden they bear. Maybe they won't, but either way he has a job to do. Letting anymore of his summons, or his brothers, die is not something he intends to allow.

After an hour of thought, he finally gets back to his feet and performs his reverse summoning jutsu, sending him home to Kiri.

* * *

Kiyoshi puffs into his Hunter-nin room, the smoke disappearing quickly to reveal a half dressed kunoichi. His instincts react for him, pulling a kunai from his pouch, reaching for her and grabbing her around the neck. Placing the kunai to her throat, cutting slightly into her. Deeper then he would normally do, she was in his apartment.

"Who the fuck are you? How the fuck did you get into my room?" Kiyoshi demands, his killing intent flaring to its fullest and his eyes now block red.

Asuka squeeks in fright and looks at Kojiro sitting on the bed to the right with pleading eyes.

"So, brother, I take it you need me or the war is over." Kojiro states, ignoring the young Kunoichi.

"Oh, so this is your whore?" Kiyoshi asks, digging the kunai deeper into her neck, blood beginning to trickly from the wound.

"Something like that, answer my questions first. How many died?" Kojiro demands.

"Too fucking many. Kojiro, I was wrong, about a few things, but sending you back the most." Kiyoshi admits, keeping his hold on the young girl.

"Wow... That's a first. Just so you know, this isn't over. Anyway, this is Hayabusa Asuka, Gozou's daughter." Kojiro says.

"Her name won't matter once she's dead." Kiyoshi readies to slice Asuka's throat.

"Actually, I'm training her. I'd prefer my student alive." Kojiro states nonchalantly, standing from his bed.

Kiyoshi doesn't reply, he merely begins to laugh with every fibre of his being. The first time since his first battle with the Bear Sage.

"You can't be fucking serious? This wimp? She'll last an hour if that!" Kiyoshi voices, between each maniacal laugh.

"When I started training her, yes. Now? Maybe two hours." Kojiro replies with a chuckle.

"Just let me kill her, I've not killed anything but fucking bears for weeks! At least she'll die a clean death." Kiyoshi requests, still laughing between each word.

"Nah, she could be useful later. Let her go, she's had a rough day training. It was a double workout day." Kojiro says with a mischievous grin.

"Fine, but give me half an hour before we return to the summoners realm, I got somewhere I want to go." Kiyoshi relents, letting the girl fall to the floor in a heap of tears and piss.

"Where's that?" Kojiro wonders aloud.

"Don't worry about it, it doesn't affect you. Her on the other hand, I don't know." Kiyoshi replies, a grin of pure malice appearing on his face.

Kojiro grunts picks Asuka off the floor, shouldering and moving to the bathroom where he drops her down.

"Shower, and if you ever piss on my floor again, I swear on the Mizukage I will skin you alive. Clean it up when you're done. Then you're on your own til I'm back from the Summons realm." Kojiro states to the mess of a kunoichi before slamming the bathroom door and turning back to his brother.

"She's well trained, I bet you ten thousand ryō she's dead by the time we return." Kiyoshi offers his brother, making his way to the door and opening it.

"Deal, but only because I don't think she has the guts to leave the apartment." Kojiro agrees.

"Good. Now I'll be back soonish, as I said, I got somewhere to be." Kiyoshi leaves the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

"Wonderful. I suppose I can head back to the summons realm." Kojiro mutters.

"I'd wait if I was you." Kiyoshi shouts through the door.

"Or not…" he mutters again as the shower turns on.


	8. Chapter Seven: Perfection

TangentTwo: Character development! Power ups! Magical abilities!

TangentOne: ***From the other room*** What?

TangentTwo: A new chapter is coming out!

TangentOne: ***Walks in the lounge*** Why wasn't I told?

TangentTwo: You just were, sit down and read! Oh my GOD I love powerups!

* * *

Kiyoshi enters the apartment after an hour absence, blood dripping from all of his clothes. You would be hard pressed to find a part of him not covered in blood. A look of complete satisfaction covers his entire face. With each step he takes, blood oozes onto the floor. Covering every inch beneath him.

"I hope you know blood stains worse than piss, and I'm not cleaning that up." Kojiro states without looking up from his book. Asuka shrivels on Kiyoshi's bed.

"The whore can clean it. Also why the fuck is she on my bed when there's a perfectly nice floor for her to sit on? I mean once she cleans up the blood and guts." Kiyoshi states joyfully.

"Aye, she can clean it. I thought you said you would only be gone thirty minutes?" Kojiro recalls, looking up from his book.

"I got carried away, the rebels remnants really do provide such good stress relief." Kiyoshi returns, slipping his bloodied clothes off and onto the floor, revealing a large scar across of his front.

"Of course, they're not good for anything else. I don't know why they still bother," Kojiro accepts, returning to his book as his brother changes. "Wait is that a new scar?" He says, looking back up from the book for a second.

"Yes, caringly given to me by a fat fuck with overly large fingernails. I gave him a scar to match mind you," Kiyoshi explains, finishing dressing and grabbing the last of his gear. "You got a spare blade?"

"Ah, no. Mine broke too, we could go 'buy' a couple." Kojiro says, folding a corner on his page and closing the book.

"I have a much better Idea." Kiyoshi quickly says, acting on his newly formed plan.

Kiyoshi walks straight to the door opening it and moving to the next apartment to his own. He knocks hard on the door.

"What the hell do you want this time, Kojiro," Kenichi asks as he opens the door. "Oh, Kiyoshi. What a wonderful surprise." He says dishearteningly.

"Cut the shit, give me all of your swords, tantōs, ninjatōs and chokutōs and fucking hurry will you?" Kiyoshi orders the dwarf like man.

"Eh? Why do you think I have all those? And what happened to your own blades?" He interrogates.

"Since when do I answer to you? Do as I fucking told you or I'll gut you and take them myself!" Kiyoshi asserts, readying a kunai and entering hell path.

"Fine, fine. I like my guts where they are, you fucking maniac. Threatening me all the damn time…" The man acquiesces as he goes back into his apartment.

The man rummages around for a few minutes before reappearing in front of Kiyoshi, blades in hand.

"Good dwarf, now drop them." Kiyoshi demands.

The small man drops two of each blade, and four tantōs. Then he turns back to close his apartment door. To his dismay, Kiyoshi stops him as the door was about to close.

"I didn't say I was done with you. Next time I see you, remember to fucking run, I don't appreciate you calling me a maniac." Kiyoshi informs him, his jovial tone nowhere to be seen.

"Right, I'll note that in the 'save your life' spot." Kenichi replies, tapping his temple with his forefinger and closing the door.

"I fucking hate that man. Hey, Kojiro, you got any of those tripwire explosive seals you bought during the rebellion left?" Kiyoshi shouts to Kojiro through their open apartment door.

"No, but you can make due with a Kunai trap instead." He replies just loud enough to reach Kiyoshi from their apartment.

"Fine, but if he lives, it's your fault." Kiyoshi voices, walking back to his apartment to gather the tools he needs.

"I actually quite like him, he annoys you and that's the best part." Kojiro continues as his brother enters the room and Asuka tenses.

"He's going to die by my hand one fucking day." Kiyoshi promises, leaving the apartment with his gathered tools.

After a few minutes, the trap lays set. Kiyoshi looks over his work, a grin etched onto his face.

"Right, let's get back to the Summon Realm, that fat fuck ain't going to kill himself is he?" Kiyoshi mentions, entering his apartment and closing the door.

"No, he won't. I'd wager he's up to something though, if the war is still going on this long." Kojiro wagers, beginning the reverse summoning jutsu.

"Well he does have some teammates now." Kiyoshi points out, beginning the reverse summoning jutsu as well.

"Interesting." Kojiro states in thought.

"Though two of them are dead." Kiyoshi finishes.

The two brothers jump through to the summon realm, and Asuka releases a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

* * *

Kojiro and Kiyoshi pop back in the command tent, much to Riborubā and Kōmoris relief.

"Kojiro, I'm so glad you-" Kōmori starts.

"Save it, give me a map of our situation. Report everything you've done strategically." Kojiro orders, moving to the table in the center of the room.

Riborubā brings a map over in his mouth and Kojiro takes it, unrolling it and looking at the current status. Markers of allies and enemies in vision move around on the map with the help of an extreme tracking jutsu.

"Bloody hell, this is a fucking mess." Kojiro mutters.

"We tried, most of our strategists from the last war are dead, and the ones that are alive can't agree on a course of action." Riborubā explains.

"To your credit, the felines are being deployed well. The pteropines are being misused and you're missing out on vital opportunities. Have two vampire bats added to each squad on the front lines and drag two foxes off. They'll drain the enemies chakra as the flying foxes keep it flowing correctly."

"Consider it done." The large ocelot agrees, moving to their communication unit.

As Riborubā leaves, Kiyoshi's eyes turn blood red, his sclera turns black and his hair waves in an unseen wind as it turns to a fire orange.

"That fat fucking cunt is on his way to pass the spring!" Kiyoshi roars as he enters Hell Incarnate.

"From behind the line? Fuck," Kojiro returns, flaring heaven mode to a peak. Eyes turning solid yellow. "Oh damn, you can do that on whim now? Did I tell you it looks cool as fuck?" He says to his brother.

"Save it for later, I'm not letting that cunt get away again. Also it's not perfect so it's not good enough." Kiyoshi informs his brother, readying to leave.

"Yep, let's go. Kōmori, hold down the fort." Kojiro orders his giant bat.

"Absolutely, go pound him a new asshole!" The head Ambassador of the pteropines says awkwardly.

"Oh right, I forgot to mention, he may have lost a huge chunk of his leg. Try to mention it as much as possible." Kiyoshi quickly mentions.

"Wonderful. Lead the way, brother." Kojiro turns to follow his brother out of the tent.

"Try to keep up. Summons, stay fucking put, no more of you are dying." Kiyoshi orders, leaving the tent at a blistering speed.

Kojiro follows behind barely able to keep up. They wanted to get to the spring before Hideo to setup a defense. It took less than two minutes to get to the spring, less if Kojiro shared Kiyoshi's True Path.

"You're fast even on Hell? Impressive. Let's wait, not many traps can trick a Sage. Mask your signature though, he already knows we're here, he just doesn't know specifically," Kojiro says, then takes a good look around. "What the fuck? Where's the spring? Is that a fucking fissure?"

"Of course I'm fast, and why the fuck would I hide? I want that fuck to know who's waiting to kill him. Also what do you mean what spring? It's right here, and over there, and a little bits down the fissure. Yes, a fissure, it's like you've never seen one before." Kiyoshi confirms.

"He knows who we are, chakra signatures are just that, no two alike. You know that, forget your fucking pride. We need every advantage possible. Now mask it." Kojiro retorts, forgetting about the fissure.

"Fine, but he's going to be coming in at his strongest. Given that I was the one who ripped the chunk of flesh off I told you about. Seems only wise to be at our best too." Kiyoshi tries to reasons, chuckling slightly at the mention of the flesh he took.

"Do you have to leave Hell Incarnate to mask it? Ah nevermind. Too late, he's here." Kojiro says with an abundance of irritation.

"You red haired fuck, I'm going to rip you to shreds! I want ten times the flesh you stole from me!" Hideo roars, landing in front of the brothers flanked by an unknown woman.

"Good to see you too, Hideo 'The fat fuck'. I see you brought your whore with you." Kiyoshi returns, grinning madly.

"Call me a whore again, I promise you'll regret it you barbarian of a Shinobi." The woman next to Hideo retorted, a hand on her hip.

As she finishes, Kiyoshi disappears from sight.

"You're a whore." Kiyoshi voices from next to the lady, directly into her ear, a grin plastered over his face.

The woman jabs her elbow into empty space behind her, where Kiyoshi had stood only a moment before.

"Try it again you soulless fuck!" She yells to the empty air around her.

When she finishes shouting at Kiyoshi, much to her horror, blood starts flowing down her front. Her neck had been sliced. She falls into a puddle of her own pooled blood as Kiyoshi begins to chuckle.

"Fucking hell that was hilarious! I love killing helpless shits!" Kiyoshi shouts, laughing maniacally.

"Aye it was pretty good, but remember there's still a giant fat bear covered in fur to fight. Kojiro says, never taking his eyes off of Hideo.

"Good point. So, lard arse, any particular ways you'd like to die?" Kiyoshi asks, brandishing his newly acquired chokutō.

"Fuck you. I see you brought back the weak cunt from last time. Honestly thought he had died by now. Oh well, now I get to take pleasure in finishing him off myself!" Hideo howls, his pride still injured.

"Yeah, yeah, the younger brother is the weaker one, I get that all the time. One thing is for sure though, it doesn't matter if I'm weaker. We work together best, sometimes it's like you're fighting two bodies with one mind. I'd wager on you losing this fight _Bear Sage._ " Kojiro replies, drawing a ninjato in his right hand, and a tanto in the left.

"This is going to be a whole lot more interesting than our last fights, Porky." Kiyoshi flares his Hell Incarnate to the strongest he could muster.

Whilst Kiyoshi's chakra signature dwarfed Kojiro's, the latter person had still grown his own power somewhat during his training. The three people stood in a rough triangle, and the brothers staired Hideo down. In an instant the fat man grew twice his size, fur covering his body and ripping his clothes to shreds. His nails elongated and began to claw as a snout grew from his head.

"Holy fuck that's creepy! All your fat rolls grew too! Are you getting ready for hibernation already?" Kojiro exclaims, forcing his stance to the standard for Heaven Path.

"Not yet, this is my normal weight. It's all I need to finally kill you two!" Hideo roars, his voice much more baritone and deep.

"That's laughable, how does getting fatter help you? Unless you intend to sit on us!" Kiyoshi asks.

"Don't you know? Food restores chakra faster!" The man-bear says impatiently.

"Only a clan in Konoha has learned to use their fat as excess chakra. Are you expecting us to believe a nobody from nowhere can do what a clan has had to have a hundred years to figure out?" Kojiro demands.

"You know what? Fuck this, you've outlived your usefulness." Kiyoshi readies himself, nodding towards Kojiro.

Kojiro notices the nod from his periphery and launches forward with his eyes still solid yellow. Hideo locks his eyes on the younger brother, keeping his other senses open to Kiyoshi's follow up. Kojiro starts his all out melee, precisely aiming for every debilitating tendon.

His attacks fall on sharp claws, but right before they would clash Kojiro pulled back. He doesn't want to ruin his new toys. As Kojiro fights, Kiyoshi flies at Hideo, forcing him to fight on two fronts. Hideo is able to block the blows from both of the brothers, but with each attack, his response slows. Hideo's anger continued to mount. Kiyoshi was the instigator of his anger, goading him with each swing of his chokutō. After a few more minutes of blocking attacks, Hideo roars out, force the brothers away from him.

"I've had enough of you puny summoners! No one will stop my advance or the advance of my summons!" Hideo bellows, coming closer to his feral form.

The brothers quickly reform their formation, now standing beside each other.

"Well, you're going to need to hurry the fuck up and unlock your true path. He's getting to the point where it's going to be kinda hard to kill him alone." Kiyoshi tells Kojiro.

"Does it just happen like that? Fuck… hold him off for a bit. I have an idea." Kojiro says, sheathing his blades and falling to the ground in a meditation pose.

"Kojiro, before I hold this oaf off. Know this, Riborubā gave me some advice I think might help. Don't worry about me, I trust you wholly, and for once I mean it. Now hurry the fuck up and awaken your fucking true path!" Kiyoshi enters his 'I'm done with your shit' stance, goading the Bear Sage further.

Kojiro emptied his mind, the distant clashing of sword on claws at the back of his mind. He felt every inch of his body, every nook and cranny. His chakra flowed through his network steadily, every tenketsu breathing evenly as the chakra passed. His chakra flared slightly, but not enough.

He redoubled his efforts, his mind drew a perfect blank, he didn't even focus on his muscles or chakra. Just an emptiness that filled his whole mind, a precise amount of nothing. His chakra again flared, moreso this time, but still not quite enough.

Instantly his mind drew from the words his brother had said before. 'I trust you wholly', his head filled with that sentence, his focus solely on his brothers words. The ones he's wanted to hear for a very long time.

His chakra flared to a new height, mirroring his brothers. His hair began to wave in the air, changing to a bright blue. His eyes shot open to reveal yellow pupils and a light blue sclera. Black triangles pointing to the ground cover his cheeks.

Kojiro stood, the ground cracking beneath his feet. A cloak of chakra formed around him, it was transparent, with a slight blue tinge. He flexed his muscles, along with his chakra.

"I feel… better." Kojiro mutters.

Hideo's attention suddenly darts to Kojiro, in his new form. This allows Kiyoshi to roundhouse kick him in the head, sending him flying into a nearby creator.

"About fucking time! It's been nearly a whole fucking hour! Wait, why the fuck do you feel stronger than me? This is bullshit!" Kiyoshi rambles, flaring his own powers.

"Mine is perfect." Kojiro simply says, flaring his killing intent to an ever higher level.

Hideo stands on all fours from the crater, then the killing intent hits him. He shivers on his soles, not wanting to move. The unknown beast from before feels more like a calculating predator already deciding how to roast his prey. This predator is much larger than a bear, and Hideo knows it.

Kojiro blinks forward, his movements faster than ever before. His hand caught Hideo's throat, though he couldn't wrap his hands halfway around. Instead he dug into the furred skin tightly, and lifted the monstrous bear off the ground with ease.

"How many of our summons did you kill?" Kojiro asks calmly, or so it appeared.

"Not enough." Hideo answers evasively.

Kojiro tightens his grip, drawing blood with his nails. Hideo tried to swing at Kojiro, but when his claws reached the cloak, they snap off. He roars in pain, a tear dropped from his eye.

"Answer the question, Hideo." Kojiro demands with his still calm demeanor, but the look in his eyes portrayed hatred.

"Twenty two felines and thirty seven pteropines." Hideo forces out.

"Dearest brother of mine who I love with all my heart, break his ribs." Kojiro says easily.

"It'll be my fucking pleasure," Kiyoshi states, a whole new level of anger in his voice. "Any preferences my brother on how I break them?"

"As you wish, leave him alive for me." Kojiro answers, throwing the bear to his brothers feet, where it skid and stopped just before his toes.

Kiyoshi immediately steps onto Hideo's arm, crushing it beneath his foot. He then sheathes his chokuto, changing to his kunai. Kiyoshi kneels beside the body, placing his kunai onto each rib before plunging the kunai into the strong bone, breaking it from the rest of the cage. He repeats the action until all of his ribs are severed from its cage. Blood now pooling slowly around Hideo. Though not enough to kill him.

"It doesn't feel like enough." Kiyoshi states, standing himself up.

Kiyoshi then steps onto Hideos remaining arm, leaving him unable to hold anything for the rest of his life.

"He's all yours brother." Kiyoshi finally kicks the body back to Kojiro.

"With pleasure." Kojiro smiles wickedly, drawing his tanto.

"Please… no more…" Hideo cries.

"No more? No fucking more? Are you fucking mad? Did you allow our summons peace when you killed them? I highly doubt it you fucking flea ridden cockroach eating pork rind!" Kojiro finally snaps, his tanto danced around Hideo's body, slicing every tendon it could find.

Blood flowed out of every crevice in his body, the only place left untouched was his face.

"P...lea...se…" Hideo muttered, barely a whisper.

"Kill you? Oh yes. Kiyoshi? Would you like the honor?" Kojiro asks politely.

"I've had my fun with this waste of life, no, an eye for an eye. He's all yours, he did nearly kill you once." Kiyoshi reasons, spitting onto Hideo.

"I've never loved you more." Kojiro states simply, dragging his ninjato from its sheath.

Kojiro put his feet on both shoulders of the nearly dead man. He raises his blades and plunges downward, forcing both points into each eye. The short swords stipping at hand guard deep. Blood sprayed from the eye sockets like a faucet, hitting his chakra cloak and leaving his face plastered in a content smile.

"Good riddance." Kiyoshi voices, as he witnesses his brother kill Hideo.

Kojiro stood, taking his blades with them, a quick flick of the short swords and no blood was left on them. He sheathes them quickly, and turns to his brother. Who chuckles with his brothers new appearance.

"You're perfect too, eh?" Kojiro says light heartedly.

"That I am." Kiyoshi flares his killing intent to its fullest, burning the ground beneath him and the air around him.

Kiyoshi's body was now covered in a labyrinth of thick black lines leaving the exact same amount of room for his regular skin. The tattoo of what had previously been eyeliner bridging his nose now also daggered below his eyes in a menacing fashion.

"Lets head back to the command post, I bet they're waiting for news." Kojiro states, reverting back to his normal heaven path.

"Yeah we'd best. Kojiro, I'm sorry for my stupidity, many died and I can't change it now." Kiyoshi mirrors his brother by leaving his perfect path and settling on Heaven.

"I'm mad about the deaths of my summons, yes. I knew, however, you needed to come to the conclusion to bring me back yourself. If I had shown up out of nowhere, I doubt it would have gone this way." Kojiro states simply, beginning the trek back. They could talk on the way.

"So, I take it we're back on the same page?" Kiyoshi asks.

"I never doubted you for a second, brother. Yes, we're back on the same page." Kojiro answers.

"So I can kill your whore now?" Kiyoshi queries eagerly.

"No, for fucks sake. I'm training her as a promise to her dead father. Who I may have killed… but that's not the point. Point is, I made a promise, at least until I think she's ready." Kojiro answers with a facepalming attitude.

"Can I at least tell her you killed her father? Seeing as she obviously doesn't know?" Kiyoshi tries to con his brother into agreeing.

"I was going to tell her when she asked, figured that would be more fun." Kojiro says with a malicious grin.

Kiyoshi returns the grin, now focusing on the trip to the camp.


	9. Chapter Eight: Traitors Sword

TangentOne: Kiyoshi fucked up. Good thing his brother is forgiving.

TangentTwo: Nah, Kojiro just saw the light. He's anything but forgiving.

TangentOne: With his brother, I meant.

TangentTwo: Yeah, he falls in line because his brother is better than him.

TangentOne: You know you're a cunt, right?

TangentTwo: It's my middle name! Literally!

* * *

A week had passed since the Bear Sage's demise, and the summons realm had cleaned up nicely. The pteropines elected to only take their caves back, whilst the felines cared more for concessions and some more jungle territory.

All in all, the realm became quiet once again, and Kojiro and Kiyoshi were about to head back to their apartment. Before that, Daisuke and Shuryō stopped them.

" _Oh fuck._ " Kiyoshi mutters under his breath his summons leader's sudden appearance.

"You two have saved our species both. Though one of you nearly damned us, I'd like to congratulate you both on your excellent performance." Shuryō said simply, motioning for Daisuke to speak next.

" _Kiyoshi_ , because of your need to protect Kojiro, you nearly lost us this war. However, you also did your best to protect your summons, even if it meant you nearly died, on multiple occasions. So I will echo Shuryō's congratulations to you both." Daisuke voices, placing his paw onto Kiyoshi's shoulder.

"Thank you, we tried our best. Kiyoshi may have stumbled, but he picked himself up and went farther, faster than before." Kojiro answers tactfully for his brother.

"Really, we appreciate your efforts. Thank you. Now I must go, the caves need to be reworked." Shuryo says, teleporting away leaving the monstrous feline with the two humans.

"Well, I must leave also, thanks to you _finally_ winning us this war, we have new territory to manage. Oh, yes, you owe us a spring Kiyoshi, I will remember that you destroyed our biggest one," Daisuke mentions, glaring at his summoner before laughing. "I'm kidding, you owe us nothing, if anything we owe you."

"I didn't do it for money or things, I did it because you're family, just like Kojiro is." Kiyoshi says simply.

"I never thought I'd say this, knowing how vulgar you can be, but I'm proud of you. More so then I ever thought I could be of any summoner before you. I know how you reacted when you saw that scum with furs of our kind. You truly are a summoner we don't deserve." Daisuke admits, bowing his head towards Kiyoshi and leaving the tent.

"Hey, Kiyoshi?" Kojiro takes his brothers attention.

"Hm?" Kiyoshi grunts in return.

"I think I remember why I used to look up to you." Kojiro states.

"Because I'm fucking badass?" Kiyoshi slides back to his usual demeanor.

"Something like that," Kojiro responds while chuckling. "Let's head back to the apartment. I'm sure our Kage has missed our service."

"Wait a second, fucking tell me first, our Kage can wait a few more minutes." Kiyoshi affirms, pinning his gaze onto his brother.

"You may act up, you may be a bit hasty or reckless. You may be a little overprotective or you may be a little short sighted. None of that matters, because in the end you make the right decision for your family." Kojiro answers truthfully.

"Huh, not what I expected, right let's get home." Kiyoshi says, preparing the hand seals to reverse summon.

Kojiro duplicates the hand seals and in no time they were back in an empty apartment. It was trashed, the blood from the rebels still stained the carpet and the fridge door lay open. Asuka had left.

"Huh, guess I owe you ten grand. No way in hell she could survive on her own." Kojiro wagers.

"I really hope she died painfully." Kiyoshi laughs hard.

"I actually liked her, she was bearable. Always did as she was told, fuck. This kinda stings. Maybe Kenichi knows when she left? If he's not dead…" Kojiro wonders aloud, leaving the apartment.

"He best be fucking dead, or I'll do it myself!" Kiyoshi shouts out of the door to Kojiro.

Kojiro knocks on Kenichi's door, and to his surprise it opened with Kenichi's scowling face.

"You're not dead." Kojiro says.

"Of course I'm not dead, that trap was child's play. Literally! I walked past the academy and they were teaching that exact trap!" He says, his usual non caring personality shining through.

"Yeah, we were never good with tool traps, never needed 'em. Say, before Kiyoshi kills you, do you know where that girl I had with me went?" Kojiro asks politely.

"No clue, I don't keep tabs on other hunter-nins property." Kenichi replies, brushing off the threat.

"Ah, thanks anyway," Kojiro thanks. "He's still alive brother!"

"That slimy fucking dwarf, why the fuck do I have to do everything by hand?" Kiyoshi roars, charging out of the apartment, unsheathing his chokutō.

"Fuck, you were serious?" Kenichi slams the door shut.

"Hey asshole, you want your swords back right? Open the fucking door before I kick it down! You know I will!" Kiyoshi demands, brandishing the blade.

Kojiro kicks the door in, and it flies off its hinges.

"Go for him brother, he's going for the window." Kojiro says politely.

"No he fucking doesn't! Come and take your sword back you fucking coward!" Kiyoshi sprints after the dwarf, grabbing him as he tries to leap out of the window. "Where do you think you're going? You can't run off without taking your blades back can you?"

"Let me go, Kiyoshi! I may have a smart mouth but I've always helped you two out! I know the barking order around here!" The man pleads.

Kiyoshi throws the man back into the room. Walking to him once he finally stands back up.

"Here's your sword back." Kiyoshi says, impaling Kenichi with the blade and dragging it along his gut, eviscerating him.

"Great, now I'm sure our Kage would like to know why we were gone for so long. I could've talked to him earlier, but I figured I was still on leave." Kojiro explains, motioning to the elevator down the hall.

"You make a valid point, he may be rather unhappy with our absence." Kiyoshi agrees.

Kojiro moves along the hall, followed shortly by his brother who wipes the blade down. The two climb into the elevator and pop down to the ground floor. They found the mission room relatively empty, especially for midday.

"I wonder why there's so few people." Kojiro wonders aloud while walking to the exit.

"I have no clue, I albut killed all the rebel remnants in Kiri before we left for the summoning realm, so it can't be them." Kiyoshi states, recalling his wonderful slaughter.

"Hm, maybe Yagura knows." Kojiro replies once outside.

He enters heaven path and shoots forward across the rooftops, followed closely by his brother doing the same. They quickly come upon the Kage's building and land at the door front. Kojiro knocks three times with the large brass band serving as a bell.

A shorter man, yet still taller than the recently deceased, answers the door. On his back laay a large staff, and his attire a mottled green. The fourth Mizukage looked at his guests with a distasteful eye.

"And where were you two for the past two months?" He asks, his tone matching the gaze.

"Do you have summons, Yagura-sama?" Kojiro asks.

"Yes, why?" Yagura wonders, his tone sharpening.

"If you heard of the war between summons, we were called upon as our species respective summoners. Your own summons can fact-check that." Kojiro answers dutifully.

"Mhm, well, the _fact_ remains that you abandoned your post for two months. As such, I'm sending you off to track down the traitor Momochi Zabuza. He left a week ago, and he still has the Kubikiribōchō. Get it back for me." Yagura demands, shutting the door in their face.

"That went well." Kojiro states.

"How the fuck is this a punishment? I was looking for a reason to go and get Kubikiribōchō, although I would rather of killed Jūzō for it. He was stronger than this halfwit traitor." Kiyoshi points out.

"Yeah yeah, It's probably less of a punishment and more of a reason to keep us out of Kiri. _You_ cause a lot of paperwork to float on his desk. Anyway, I needed to talk to the traitor regardless. He has something of mine, or at least he knows where it is." Kojiro replies.

"Oh for fuck sake, she's dead just accept it, she's not worth keeping the traitor alive." Kiyoshi affirms.

"A promise is a promise, brother. Even if I killed the man. Let's go, we need a lead." Came the reply.

"Fine, but then I get to kill him." Kiyoshi concedes.

The brothers immediately leap to the nearest roof. Once atop they head for the port to begin their search for the traitor, Momochi Zabuza.

* * *

A few weeks pass by, the brothers have not found their target yet. Kojiro is out still looking for information while Kiyoshi lounges in their extremely fancy hotel. Kiyoshi has been sat in his bed for a few hours when the door slams open. Kojiro quickly walks inside.

"I found him. Civilian reports that he's working for a man named Gato here in the land of waves. They have him harassing the bridge builder." Kojiro explains.

"Finally! Let's get going then. Kubikiribōchō will be mine!" Kiyoshi jumps up from his bed, grabbing his gear.

Kojiro leaves the room through the window, opting for its speed. Kiyoshi smashes through the wall, it's been awhile since he last did it. Kojiro barely acknowledges his brother's stupidity and leads the way to the bridge through the trees.

They come to the bridge after fifteen minutes of non-path travelling. They stay in the branches as they look through the mist to see two figures standing on the bridge amongst many downed people. Shortly after, five more appear at the base. Kojiro recognizes a man with silver hair and a mask similar to his brothers. Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan.

"This could be interesting to watch. Who are the three brats with Kakashi though? I know the old man is the bridge builder." Kojiro says aloud.

"Genin probably, knowing Konoha, but we can't sit and watch if Zabuza is down there. I refuse to give my kill to a Konoha shinobi." Kiyoshi affirms.

"Aye, and if anyone in Konoha can kill Zabuza it'd be Kakashi. Can you believe he's s-rank in our bingo books? All it says is that he has a sharingan." Kojiro asks.

"With that eye I can believe it. Utter bullshit that eye is. Either way, he has nothing on us now." Kiyoshi states, thinking of their true paths.

Kojiro grunts in response and lands in between the two groups before they start talking. Kiyoshi follows suit, glaring at the Konoha shinobi.

"Well, I didn't expect Zabuza to have reinforcements." A lazy drawl came from Kakashi.

"You think we'd help this traitor? You've got to be fucking with me?" Kiyoshi returns to Kakashi.

"Aye, we're here for him, not with him. Stay out of this Konoha, it's an internal matter." Kojiro says.

"Wait a minute! He's been fighting us for-" A blond boy pipes up.

"Shut up brat, I have no qualms killing all five of you." Kiyoshi threatens the boy.

"Naruto, shut it. He's all yours, our mission is just to protect the builder." Kakashi answers in a relaxed pose.

"Thank you," Kojiro says turning his eye to Zabuza and a very feminine figure. "You know why we're here, right?"

"I have an idea, yes, but you'll have to kill me first!" Zabuza unsheaths Kubikiribōchō, holding it towards the brothers.

"It'll be my pleasure, traitor!" Kiyoshi bellows back at him.

"Alright Kiyoshi, have your fun, keep him alive for me." Kojiro says, gazing back to the Konoha shinobi to keep an eye on them.

Kiyoshi's arms show his labyrinthian tattoos, appearing out of nowhere. His hair forces itself to wave and become deep red, and his eyes turn red and his sclera black. The tattoos on his face appear just as quickly as his arms, and he smiles wickedly. Kojiro knows those maze tattoos cover his whole body. His heated aura slowly melting the bridge below him.

"So, Zabuza, you still want to fight me?" Kiyoshi readies himself, unsheathing his chokuto

" _Kiyoshi…_ " Kojiro mutters helplessly, knowing the true path wasn't needed.

"Kiyoshi? You can't be Kawaguchi Kiyoshi, Hell Incarnate and one half of the Stalkers of the Mist? Fuck!" Zabuza wavers, his blade sinking.

In the background everyone could hear Kakashi whistle nonchalantly, and Kiyoshi had the feeling of a little pair of eyes that were solid black watching his every move.

"The very same." Kiyoshi confirms, launching himself at Zabuza.

Zabuza was unable to react, as Kiyoshi impales his chokuto through Zabuza's leg, pinning him to his position.

"You're not going anyway, traitor." Kiyoshi seethes, grabbing Kubikiribōchō and holding it in place, effectively stopping Zabuza from performing any action.

The feminine figure moved quickly towards Zabuza, but found that he lay at the feet of the Konoha-nin instead with a pain in his stomach. The mask he once wore smashed.

"Haku..?" The blond boy wonders as he takes a good look at the prone figure.

"Sorry, Naruto." Haku says, flipping back to his feet and looking straight at Kojiro.

"Haku? Good name. Very strong. Kill the Konoha brats and we'll let Zabuza live. Of course, I'll make sure Kakashi doesn't interfere." Kojiro promises.

Haku turns back to the young genin, sizing them up before he attacks all three. Kakashi darts back with the pink haired girl.

"Sakura, watch Tenzo, that's the mission. I'll handle the mist-nin." Kakashi orders, raising his headband to show his Sharingan.

"All out from the beginning? I like it, Kakashi of the Sharingan. Say, do you actually know a thousand jutsu?" Kojiro asks, his eyes forming a pure yellow.

"Let's find out." He answers ominously.

Kojiro chuckles and unsheathes both of his blades as Kakashi draws his kunai. The two fling forward and lock themselves in a fierce taijutsu battle. Neither gave any ground, which impressed both opponents.

They launched backwards and Kojiro flies through hand seals while Kakashi duplicates them.

"Water Release: Water Torrent Technique!" Both shinobi shout at the same time, gathering a large amount of water from the ocean below and sending a wave crashing into the opponents.

The waves negate each other, much to Kojiro's astonishment. He looks over to the child's fight to see a large dome of ice. Then back to Kakashi, who had nearly cut the inside of his elbow with a kunai. Kojiro dodged just in time to avoid the paralyzing cut.

"Come on Kojiro, you could of dodged that as a fucking genin!" Kiyoshi berates his brother.

"Put a sock in it! He's actually quite good with only heaven path to help me." Kojiro fired back, pointing out his brothers frivolous use of his secret weapon.

Kakashi let the brothers banter, and looked over to his students fight. They had just won, but Naruto was punctured like a porcupine with ice senbon. He looks back to Kojiro to see him sheathing his weapons.

"Your kids won, I have no reason to fight you anymore." Kojiro states simply.

Kakashi nods and slips his headband back down over his eye and rushes to Naruto's side. Concerned much more about his genin than Kojiro going back on his word. He knew the brother could act much quicker than he would like, it's definitely something to report.

Kojiro walks over to the nuke-nin from Kiri, and holds his chin up delicately when he gets there. He bore his gaze into Zabuza's soul before letting go to speak.

"Do you know where Hasegawa Asuka is? Her father was Hasegawa Gozou, the head donator to your rebellion." Kojiro asks simply.

"I might do, if you tell your asshole of a brother to let go of me, I may tell you." Zabuza barters.

"I don't think you understand your situation. Do you know why they call me 'The Vampire'?" Kojiro queries mischievously.

"Fine, she's part of the rebellion. She joined a month or so ago, saying she was captured by a blood thirsty Kiri-nin." Zabuza informs Kojiro.

"Bloody hell!" Kojiro swore. "Fine, Kiyoshi, have your way with him."

"About fucking time!" Kiyoshi let's go of the chokuto in Zabuza's leg and quickly unsheathes a ninjato, slicing through his arm holding Kubikiribōchō.

The blade drops as Zabuza howls in agony.

"Finally, my prize." Kiyoshi wipes his ninjato before sheathing it and picking up Kubikiribōchō.

As soon as Kiyoshi picks Kubikiribōchō up, he swings it cutting Zabuza into two. As Zabuza's body hits the floor, Kiyoshi sheaths Kubikiribōchō on his back. He exits his true path before turning to his brother.

"Great, let's go before that blond kid gets anymore ideas. He's a genin, yes, but he's also a jinchūriki." Kojiro states simply.

"Wouldn't Kiri benefit from a new jinchūriki?" Kiyoshi asks.

"He's a shino- no, he's becoming a shinobi. His loyalties lie with Konoha, it would be pointless to take him." Kojiro explains.

"Fine, let's get home then." Kiyoshi concedes.

* * *

The brothers enter the Kiri border, immediately knowing that something had changed. Their senses tell them a whole mass of chakra is in the center of town, lining the streets away from it. When they get there, they stay on the roof of a building close by.

Everyone in Kiri, civilians and shinobi alike, were lining the streets. In the center of the village, Mei Terumi wore the Mizukage's ceremonial hat.

"-and from now on, we will no longer murder senselessly, no longer steal with no recourse. We will care for the children and elderly, civilians and shinobi are two parts of the same whole. If we work together, we can make Kiri a nice place, one we can be proud of saying we're from. If anybody disagrees with me, come and take this hat, right here and now. _I dare you to try._ " She finishes her speech.

"Bloody fucking hell! We missed another uprising. Well, Kiyoshi what do you want to do? We can beat her, but do we want to? I can't stand living a lawful life, it's not for me." Kojiro states.

"Fuck this! That cunt can have this shithole, I've heard there are some good missions for missing-nin in The Land of Lightning." Kiyoshi offers up.

"Sounds like a plan." Kojiro utters, taking his tanto out and slashing the metal band on his belt.

"One minute though. I want to have one last laugh before we leave." Kiyoshi states, mirroring his brothers action, striking his headband and then placing around his head again.

"What's the idea?" Kojiro asks.

"Well, I need a few dead bodies, and some ninja wire." Kiyoshi explains.

"You should have wire in your kit, I'll drop down this alleyway, how many bodies?" Kojiro asks.

"Enough to spell out 'fuck Mei'." Kiyoshi stifles a laugh.

Kojiro chuckles before heading off to get the bodies.


	10. Chapter Nine: Lightning

TangentTwo: Oh. My. God.

TangentOne: What?

TangentTwo: That was ingenious! I have to do that now!

TangentOne: Again, what?

TangentTwo: You'll see. * **Laughs maniacally** *

 **Two Days Later**

TangentOne: Two! Why the fuck are their bodies in my room? And why the fuck do they spell out 'Fuck One'?

TangentTwo: * **Laughs maniacally again** *

* * *

"What the fuck…" Mei utters upon entering her office.

Twelve bodies hung from her wall spelling out 'fuck Mei'. The stench was horrid, and she pinched her nose with her fingers. On her desk lay a note which she picked up to read.

' _Welcome to your new office Mei, we hope you enjoy the decorations we prepared for you. As we know you don't like the shinobi who call Kiri the Bloody Mist, we made it out of your rebels._

 _Signed The Stalkers of the Bloody Mist._

 _P.S. We will be back for your head one day, one day soon.'_

"Fucking hell…" She mutters letting the paper float down to the desk then leaves the room to fetch cleaning personnel.

* * *

"I really wish we could of seen the bitch's face, I bet she's shitting herself!" Kiyoshi wagers, laughing maniacally.

"I hope so, that was more effort than I wanted to put into it. Hiding twelve bodies from a whole building was difficult." Kojiro states matter-of-factly.

"Come on, it was worth it, we've got her scared. On top of that we can do whatever the fuck we want now!" Kiyoshi reasons with his brother.

"You're right, at least about doing what we want. Did you check how much our heads are worth to Kiri at the last bounty station?" Kojiro asks.

"Around a hundred million ryo each, if I recall correctly." Kiyoshi offers up.

"Damn, we barely broke that in our first year of Hunter-nin duty. They're paying the big bucks. We had to hunt at least fifty nuke-nin for one of what we're worth." Kojiro whistles.

"Aye, I'm guessing our prank didn't help." Kiyoshi can't help but laugh even harder.

"I'd say it helped deter bounty hunters. We're flee-on-sight, right?" Kojiro queries.

"I'd say it's more flee-on-sense." Kiyoshi returns.

Kojiro chuckles at that. The two were walking in snow, wearing their normal uniforms. Their body heat was regulated with their chakra. A hundred feet ahead lay a sign.

' _Now entering The Land of Lightning_.'

"I suppose we made it. I'm trusting your info, I'd rather not go into Kumogakure at sword-point." Kojiro preferences.

"Kumo has no reason to attack us. They hate Kiri as much as the rest do." Kiyoshi points out.

"We're missing-nin from Kiri. Two very highly regarded missing-nin from Kiri. If they don't suspect us of infiltration for secrets, then they'd use us for money. At the very least we'll be watched constantly, be on your best behavior." Kojiro says like he's educating a child.

"I have no intention of causing a scene. Kumo, if anything, might hire us for jobs they don't want to do themselves. The fun stuff." Kiyoshi states.

"I hope so, I feel like we're heading into enemy territory. Though that's par for the course anywhere now." Kojiro comments.

"That's true. We'll be fine. As long as we don't have to fight the Raikage or their jinchūriki." Kiyoshi voices.

"What about the Raikage's jinchūriki?" A feminine voice calls far to the left.

Both brothers hands go for their weapons, but don't draw them.

"Who's there?" Kojiro asks from the direction of the voice.

"They're both cunts." Kiyoshi taunts, hoping to force them to reveal themselves, his hand hovering over Kubikiribōchō.

"Oh really?" The voice says right behind them.

The brothers turn to face the voice. An average height woman stood twirling a kunai with her forefinger. Her long blonde hair tied into a ponytail, and Kumo hitai-ate made Kojiro swear under his breath.

"Nii Yugito." Kojiro utters.

"The two-tailed Jinchūriki, I stand by my statement, you're a cunt." Kiyoshi remarks, laughing slightly.

"Well, as I see it, you're trespassing in The Land of Lightning. Call me a cunt again and I bring your heads into the Raikage. Leave now, and you can forget any punishment." She threatens.

Yugito blinks once she finishes her threat, Kiyoshi is no longer in front of her.

"You're a super cunt." Kiyoshi whispers into her ear.

"I've heard you're known as many forms of the word 'cunt'." Yugito replies, unfazed.

"I am, but super cunt is my favorite, you should feel very honored that I called you it." Kiyoshi grins.

"Dear the almighty fucking sage, can you not? I'm right here!" Kojiro whines.

"What's he talking about?" Yugito asks.

"I'm guessing he thinks I want to fuck you. He's not wrong but that's not the point." Kiyoshi answers truthfully.

"Oh, is that so? Well, I still have yet to hear your response to my ultimatum." Yugito informs.

"Oh, fuck, yeah, we're not trespassing you see," Kiyoshi takes off his hitai-ate and dangles it infront of her. "We're missing-nin looking for work. On that, you got any?"

"Hmm," Yugito thinks, looking at the defaced headband. "We might have something for you."

"See, Kojiro, I told you we'd find work." Kiyoshi grins, knowing full well his brothers pissed off.

"Yeah, it only took you calling a large threat 'cunt' multiple times. On top of that, you- you know what? Later. I'll berate you later." Kojiro promises.

"I called her a 'super cunt', not just any old cunt." Kiyoshi winks at his brother.

"Why do I bother?" Kojiro asks rhetorically.

"If you two are done, let's head to Kumo. I was on my way back anyway, the Land of Hot Springs is fantastic." Yugito says moving back towards Kumo, sheathing her Kunai.

"Kojiro, we're done right?" Kiyoshi shouts, putting his headband back on.

"I fucking hope so, dear fucking Sage I hope so." Kojiro utters, relaxing and falling in step behind Yugito.

Kiyoshi follows up behind, walking next to his brother.

* * *

As the trio drew closer to Kumo, Kiyoshi increased his pace, catching up to Yugito. She tried to ignore his presence at first, but after two minutes of his presence she had to ask what he wanted.

"Can I help you?" Yugito asks in a very rigid tone.

"I'm good, just thought I'd run next to you, Kojiro gets boring after a while." Kiyoshi voices, ignoring her harsh tone.

"How does that involve me?" Yugito queries, wishing she could be rid of the brothers sooner.

"Well, there's three of us here, and if Kojiro is boring me, you're my only option. I didn't think you'd be that _dumb_." Kiyoshi playfully taunts.

"Can you please just shut up, we're nearly there." Yugito begs.

"Fine." Kiyoshi agrees, to the surprise of Kojiro and Yugito.

Yugito starts to wonder why the over talkative Kiyoshi agreed to be quiet, from what she knew of him from his bingo book page. It states he's an obnoxious asshole to be avoided at all costs, unless you enjoy losing your sanity. Yet he was being, for the most part, compliant with her request. Perhaps there is some truth to his earlier statement. Yugito pushes this from her mind and hurries on to Kumo.

After another twenty minutes, the group arrives at the entrance to Kumo. Yugito walks up to the guards at the post outside of the gate leaving the Kawaguchi's alone. After a few minutes she joins the brothers again.

"Come with me, The Raikage is expecting you." Yugito informs the brothers.

"Already? Does he not have anything more important to do? We're just missing-nin." Kojiro wonders aloud.

"You're two S-rank missing-nin, worth a combined total of two hundred million ryo to Kiri. I think he has to make time for you." Yugito explains.

"Right…" Kojiro mutters. Yagura may have been weak, but the Raikage was considered the strongest of his generation. That made him uneasy.

"Follow me, and don't even bother leaving my side." Yugito orders.

"Don't worry, I'm going nowhere." Kiyoshi winks.

"Yeah, he'll follow you to the ends of the Earth, and I'll follow to make sure he doesn't fall off." Kojiro replies.

"Good to know, I _guess_." Yugito half heartedly ignores his comment.

She leads them quickly across rooftops, while Kumo is much more civilized than Kiri, the policy is still Shinobi first. The group finds the Raikage's tower quickly, as Kiyoshi would attest to her being a good leader.

She drops down to the doors of the building with the brothers close behind.

"You know how to behave properly in front of a Kage, right?" Yugito asks impatiently.

"I do, Kiyoshi generally keeps his trap shut." Kojiro answers.

"Good, let's go." Yugito orders, ushering them inside.

They hurriedly board an elevator where Yugito pushes the button for the top floor. The familiar jolt of dropping and flying stomachs hits hard with Kojiro. He wasn't in Kiri anymore.

The doors opened and the group entered a hallway which at the end held a fancy door. They walked quickly through, and Yugito opens the door, instantly dropping to a knee.

"Lord Fourth, I've brought the pair as I said I would." Yugito informs her Kage.

"Good, step aside and let them in." The large man orders.

"Yes, my Lord." Yugito stands and moves to the side of the room.

Both brothers enter casually, Kojiro forcing himself to keep his cool. While he's sure Kiyoshi and himself could beat the Kage together, he didn't want to take the chance in the middle of his village.

"Raikage A, lord Fourth." Kojiro greets.

"Hey, Raikage, I guess it's nice to meet you." Kiyoshi awkwardly greets.

Kojiro glares a warning at his brother before turning back to the large man.

"Stalkers of the Mist, Hell Incarnate and The Vampire. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" A asks calmly, templing his arms.

"Maybe you've not heard, Lord Fourth. We're now called 'The Stalkers of the Bloody Mist', with Mei in charge, it wasn't fitting anymore. On another note, we've come for work, we left Kiri with the change of leadership, and our assets were seized. Technically, we're broke, Lord Fourth." Kojiro answers, leaving out the fact he and his brother took a sizeable amount in cash before leaving.

"I see, and you think we would have something for two missing-nin to do?" A queries.

"Well, Yugito said you might." Kiyoshi answers.

Kojiro nods, although forced again. His brother is ignoring the respect the Raikage deserves, and he's not sure how lenient the man is.

"Oh she did?" A looks at her to see a stoic face tinge a slight pink.

"Yes, Lord Fourth." Kojiro reaffirms.

"I see, well. How do we know you'd… perform?" His attention returns back to the brothers.

"If we don't you can have Kubikiribōchō." Kiyoshi offers.

"What stops me from taking it now? You're in my village." He asks.

"Well, as disrespectful as I can be, I know you're a man who appreciates those who keep their word, so I know you won't risk breaking your own." Kiyoshi points out.

Kojiro looks at his brother seriously, it's the first time he's taken initiative in a serious conversation.

"Hmm," A seems deep in thought. He lays back in his chair, and it creaks ungratefully. "How much money do you need?"

"Well…" Kojiro began slowly.

"Spit it out, you're a shinobi, act like one." The Raikage chastises.

"We need fifty million." Kiyoshi voices.

"For a house somewhere quiet, Lord Fourth." Kojiro follows up, eyeing his brother again.

A brings his left hand up to his face and pinches the bridge of his nose. There is one thing that they could do that is worth that much. The issue is them upholding their word to finish the job.

"You'll give me Kubikiribōchō?" He asks, moving his hand back down.

"If we fail, yes." Kojiro responds confidently.

"What do you think, Yugito? Will they uphold their word?" A questions.

"I believe they will, the older one is fearless. He dared to insult me not once, not twice, but three times." Yugito answers easily.

"Hm, alright. I need you two to fetch an item for me. In the deep vaults of Sunagakure, there lies a rod of pure silver, mined from our very own mines here in Lightning. It was a gift to the first Raikage from the Daimyo, and it has been in Suna's possession since the last Shinobi war." A explains.

"Hold on, you want us to go into Suna, down into their vaults probably right underneath the Kage's building guarded by Sage knows how many ANBU to retrieve a silver rod?" Kojiro asks, dumbfounded.

"Sounds like fun." Kiyoshi thinks aloud.

"Yes, if you want the money you're asking for, this is the fastest method. This would mean alot to me and my people, and you'd earn your money." A explains.

"Fair enough. I suppose we can do that, do you have any knowledge on the vaults? I'd assume they're secured with seals." Kojiro acquiesces.

"Other than what you know, we know nothing. Good luck." A says dismissively.

We were ushered out of the room by Yugito. In the hall she glares at us menacingly.

"Say it, Yugito. We're not going to wait here all day." Kojiro says impatiently.

"You gave him hope, even if it's minimal. Do _not_ let him down." She orders.

"You're not my boss, I'll let him down If I feel like it." Kiyoshi banters.

"I mean it, Kiyoshi." She asserts.

"We'll get it done, next time you see us we'll have a shiny rod." Kojiro promises.

"Yeah, no one is taking my fucking Kubikiribōchō from me." Kiyoshi declares with great pride.

"Great, get going. I have work to do." Yugito shoves them down the hall slightly before entering a side office.

"Wait for me!" Kiyoshi shouts.

"She won't, if she needs a stress relief, no way in hell it's going to be from you. We'll be gone for a while trying to figure out this seal bullshit on the vaults." Kojiro mutters, already deep in thought.

"No need to be an ass," Kiyoshi replies. "We could just blow it the fuck up?"

"If this would be like anything I'd set up, there would be countermeasures for that." Kojiro replies.

"We could kill the Kage, and force his ANBU to let us in?" Kiyoshi offers up.

"We're strong, yes. We're probably not strong enough to fight ten thousand or more shinobi in a row." Kojiro returns, used to the stupid ideas.

"How about finding a seal master, and making him open the vault?" Kiyoshi throws out next.

"That could work, of course we'd need to coerce him." Kojiro answers.

"They're hard to find though." Kiyoshi voices.

"Very true, but it's either that or we learn how seals work from the bottom up." Kojiro says, finding no other options.

"Fuck that, we'll find someone to do it for us." Kiyoshi acquiesces easily.

"Good choice, I suppose we should start looking then." Kojiro mentions half-heartedly.

"Konoha is known to house a few seal masters, we could scope out there to start." Kiyoshi says.

"We'll have to go disguised, they're much less friendly to missing-nin than Kumo is." Kojiro accepts.

"We'd best find some cloaks." Kiyoshi points out.

"Aye, and a way to hide that monster of a sword. Storage scroll? I think they sell those here." Kojiro wonders aloud, heading towards the elevator.

"Bandages?" Kiyoshi wonders, following his brother..

"Yeah, no. Not going to hide the shape of the sword. Any decent Shinobi will recognize it immediately." Kojiro promises as they enter the elevator.

"I like carrying it!" Kiyoshi says rather loud.

"Then I suppose you like the life that lets you carry it. Deal with it for that short while. Konoha was your idea." Kojiro mentions, pushing the lobby button and feeling his stomach fly, making him uneasy.

"You can be a real asshole sometimes." Kiyoshi concedes.

"Someone has to keep you in line." Kojiro replies matter-of-factly.

"Fuck you, I'm the elder here." Kiyoshi voices.

"Sometimes I think you forget that. I know I always think I'm older." Kojiro banters.

"When you get laid, you can act like an elder." Kiyoshi jokes.

"Excuse me for not indulging in whores." Kojiro retorts chuckling.

"Those whores have names… I think!" Kiyoshi tries to recall.

"Oh? Do they now? Well I don't think it matters much. They're just whores." Kojiro returns.

"They provide a service!" Kiyoshi asserts.

The door to the lobby opens up, and everyone in earshot hears the next statement.

"To take dick for cash? Who cares what their names are? I don't ask the name of the cow who's steak I'm eating." Kojiro responds.

"Someone probably cares, but I mean, they would be as weak as Suna-nin." Kiyoshi laughs to himself.

The lobby was silent, all eyes stared at the two brothers exiting the elevator. A civilian on one of the registers starts to laugh, and the rest follow suit quickly.

"You got that right, tall guy!" A random voice calls in the crowd.

"I guess everyone here is well acquainted with the red light district." Kojiro comments.

"That or they just really hate those Suna fucks." Kiyoshi counters.

"Maybe both? Eh, we need supplies. Let's get a move on." Kojiro says, moving to the front door.

Once outside, the brothers looked through the city to find the market district for shinobi. The market was filled with everything a ninja could need. Seal paper, scrolls, kunai, shuriken and many other goods a ninja can't go without.

"Where the fuck are the cloaks?" Kiyoshi asks his brother.

" I would know… why?" Kojiro retorts.

"I didn't say you would know, I just asked aloud you cunt." Kiyoshi affirms.

The brothers keep walking through the market, eventually finding the shop they wanted. They enter through the door, much to the owners surprise, two Kiri-nin in Kumo is a rare sight. They were surprised he didn't drop dead from the sheer shock.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" The owner asks shaking uncontrollably.

"Yes, two large cloaks, mid collared. We don't need our entire face covered." Kojiro orders.

"Of course, follow me." The man walks towards the cloak section of his shop.

After a few minutes the brothers exit with the new cloaks now on. Both jet black and featureless.

"What else did we need?" Kiyoshi wonders aloud.

"Storage scrolls for our tools. Probably a cart with cheap cloth or something to disguise ourselves as traders." Kojiro replies.

"Fine, let's get them and go. This mission is going to be long enough already." Kiyoshi states.

"Sure deal." Kojiro replies, wandering in a random direction in the market street.


	11. Chapter Ten: The Hunt

TangentOne: What am I supposed to say?

TangentTwo: ***Looks up from game*** What do you mean?

TangentOne: Another chapter has come out, and we've got a lot more in reserve, and to be absolutely honest with you, I've got no idea what I should say about this one.

TangentTwo: Like I always say, intimidation is the best tactic. ***Sparkle eyed stare***

TangentOne: Alright?

TangentTwo: Go on, you know you want to.

TangentOne: ***Stares blankly at screen*** Read the story, children.

TangentTwo: Weak as fuck, no wonder the Almighty Tangent sent me to deal with you. ***Shakes head solemnly***

* * *

The brothers changed, at least on the outside. Kojiro wore his cloak, but his face was older, more rough and masculine. Their blades stored away in a scroll at the bottom of the cart his brother was pulling along. Kiyoshi disguised with more streamlined features, yet ones that would still complement his position as the cart puller.

Konoha was still a day travel, but the brothers were taking no risks. They were disguised as traveling merchants, bringing Shinobi weapons from Kumo. Yugito was delighted to give them the paperwork, after being informed of the plan. She then thanks the Sage for getting rid of the Kawaguchi brothers.

"Will you fucking switch with me? I've been pulling this hunk of shit since Kumo!" Kiyoshi shouts at his brother, sat atop the cart.

"No, I'm the master, and you're the servant. That's our disguise, and if a patrol comes out here, they'd wonder why the poor looking one is drawing the cart." Kojiro replies tactfully.

"We're dressed the fucking same! Stop being a lazy shit and pull the fucking cart! Or do I have to slaughter a village to change your mind?" Kiyoshi bellows, dropping the cart.

"Shut up and draw the cart. I'm meditating to master my Devoted Heaven." Kojiro replies stiffly, eyes closed.

"Meditate at the inn, you slimy prick. If my arms go dead when we reach Konoha, and you get into a fight, don't expect my fucking help." Kiyoshi affirms.

"I won't need you anyway; the only threats are the Hokage and Kakashi," Kojiro says.

"You know what? Fuck it; I'm leaving you here." Kiyoshi states, beginning to walk towards Konoha.

"If you leave the cart I'm not giving you the money for the whore you've been needing!" Kojiro calls after him.

"So what? You ever heard of surprise sex?" Kiyoshi returns with a hint of sarcasm.

"Not while were disguised you imbecile! Keep it together in there." Kojiro replies shaking his head.

"Pull the cart and I will." Kiyoshi turns, revealing a sadistic grin.

"Oh for fuck's sake. You're switching back when Konoha comes into view; I need to be riding when the guards see us for my plan to work." Kojiro acquiesces and drops down to draw the cart.

"Was that so hard brother?" Kiyoshi taunts, jumping onto the cart seat and laying down.

"Fucking pansy," Kojiro mutters, picking up the handles and pushing forward.

"Yet, I won, so shut it and pull the fucking cart." Kiyoshi orders, still smirking.

Kojiro grunts as the cart give a slow start and wish immediately to be meditating again.

* * *

Konoha's walls were the first sign to appear, other than the forest they had entered yesterday. Kojiro drops the handles of the cart and looks expectantly at his sleeping brother.

"Wake the fuck up!" Kojiro orders, standing a few feet away to ensure safety.

"Do you mind? I had a dream about… someone!" Kiyoshi barks, getting off of the cart.

"She'll fuck whoever she wants, and as far as I've seen, you're not on the list." Kojiro returns filing onto the cart.

"Fucking harsh, remind me to make sure you never get laid," Kiyoshi remarks.

"You'd want a virgin for a brother permanently?" Kojiro asks, settling onto the seat of the cart.

"If you keep annoying me then I think I'd cope." Kiyoshi implies.

Kiyoshi pushes the cart the rest of the way, taking near an hour to reach something in plain sight. The first time, both brothers appreciate the patience in civilians. Kiyoshi stops the cart as a man with spiky hair and a bandage across his nose wearing standard Konoha shinobi gear, holds a hand up and walks towards them.

"What are you carrying?" He asks, looking directly at Kojiro.

"Kumo shinobi weapons, we figured they'd fetch a high price here. Even if just bought as souvenirs." Kojiro explains, lifting the tarp off the top of the cart.

Every style of weapon was rolled in a sheet and tied together, the handles of each piece sticking out to identify them. As there were a lot of rolls, they were stacked like a pyramid yet still identifiable through eyesight. The guard looks through the stacks for anything in between and, finding nothing, waves them forward.

Kiyoshi gives an inward sigh as he pulls up next to the guard desk with the cart. Kojiro hops down from the seat once there and waits patiently as the guard takes and checks their paperwork. Finding nothing awry, he hands the paperwork back stamped.

"Have a great time here in Konoha; you need any directions for anything?" The guard asks politely.

"Yes, the nearest hotel. The servant and I are tired from the journey." Kojiro answers, much to Kiyoshi's chagrin.

"Go down this main street, third right from here takes you to an offshoot of hotels for visitors. Anything else?" He answers.

"No, thank you, we'll be on our way," Kojiro replies, hopping back on the cart.

Kiyoshi draws the cart following the directions, and once there, drops the handles in front of the first hotel he saw. Kojiro chuckles, earning him a glare, but the tall man said nothing. He knew the stakes of this visit. He'd let Kojiro know his dissatisfaction once they were in private.

Kojiro swiftly checks them into the hotel and allows one of the hotel's employee's to park the cart in a more suitable spot. Though not before he had Kiyoshi grab their storage scrolls with their weapons. Once they were in their room, Kojiro promptly passed out, leaving his brother to wallow in his grief for being the servant.

* * *

Kojiro awakes from a nightmare he hasn't had in a long time. His body drenched in cold sweat and Kiyoshi snoring on the other bed in the room. He shivers before standing and grabbing clean clothes and a shower. Once done he leaves the bathroom in a solemn mood to find his brother awake and looking at the sweat-drenched bedsheets.

"Piss yourself again? For the love of the Sage, you need to learn to stop that." Kiyoshi jokes

"I had a dream about our father," Kojiro replies, ignoring the joke.

Kiyoshi says nothing, merely spitting on the floor from the very mention of his father. Kojiro follows suit and spits as well. He walks to their storage scrolls and grabs two tanto's with a quick pop. He throws one to Kiyoshi and hides the one he kept up his sleeve.

"I don't feel safe without some form of a blade," Kojiro says, draping his cloak from the hanger.

"Lucky for you, you can hide yours," Kiyoshi replies picking up the seal for Kubikiribōchō and placing it into his pouch. "Can't hurt to keep the seal closed. Keep the shitty tanto." He follows up throwing the tanto back to his brother.

"Fair enough. Let's go find us a seal master." Kojiro places the tanto back in its seal and keeps it on his person.

They leave once Kiyoshi dons his cloak and journey through the Hidden Leaf Village. Interestingly enough, a lot of other villages shinobi seemed to be present, along with genin from those very same communities. Kojiro immediately put the timeline in his head, Konoha has its Chunin exams around this time every year.

"Looks like you chose the right place to look. We have an abundance of people to ask." Kojiro comments to his brother as they walk down the main street.

"Am I ever wrong..? Wait don't answer that!" Kiyoshi remarks, before changing his mind.

"Good save." Kojiro returns.

"Fuck off. Anyway, you're right. There are a lot of options, the only problem is, how many would even know fūinjutsu?" Kiyoshi points out.

"Yeah, I'm not too sure. Among the fact that the shinobi would have to specialize in locking seals. I doubt they put a second rate seal on that vault." Kojiro answers slightly dejected.

"Well it is Suna, so they could of." Kiyoshi jokes.

Kojiro laughs and watches a few genin walk by with Suna headbands. One had red hair and the Kanji for 'love' on his head. The trio turns to look at the brothers with scornful eyes. The redhead steps forward, glaring intensely at Kiyoshi.

"What did you say about Suna?" He asks a grating sound could be heard in the massive gourd on his back.

The genin couldn't have been older than thirteen, and his short stature compared to the two brothers was palpable. However, he showed no fear and very little restraint on his emotions.

"I said Suna hires second rate idiots, what of it?" Kiyoshi asks, reining in his want to release his killing intent.

"Gaara-" a purple painted face genin starts.

"Kiyoshi-" Kojiro begins to warn.

Gaara didn't respond, sand bulleted out from his gourd and rushed towards Kiyoshi. Right before it hit the unflinching shinobi, a silver-haired man leaps in front of the sand. Surprisingly, it stopped. The silver-haired shinobi watched as the sand retreated slowly and the teal eyed genin scowled.

"Gaara, you know better than that. Go back to your rooms until the exams start." Kakashi orders nonchalantly.

The genin walks off, and the brothers give a sweatdrop. They had just seen Kakashi just two months ago; they would still be fresh in his mind. They were wearing disguises, but they both knew he wouldn't be fooled for long. Kakashi turned to the two shinobi, and sniffed quickly, rubbing his nose.

"You two here to watch the exams?" Kakashi asks politely.

"No, we're stopping through to sell some Kumo shinobi weapons, figured they'd fetch a high price here," Kojiro responds, trying to alter his accent a little.

"Hmm, well watch out for the genin. The children may be young, but they can kill a civilian real quick, though I'm sure you two will be fine." Kakashi says with an eye crinkle.

Kojiro stomach drops, Kakashi figured it out immediately.

"Thank you; we'll watch out," Kojiro replies quickly, trying to avoid the conversation.

Kakashi nods and body flickers away, leaving the brothers alone. Kojiro sighs as a weight lifts off his shoulders and his muscles relax. Kiyoshi looks exceptionally apathetic about the whole situation and waits for his brother to get his footing back before striking up a conversation.

"Fucking hate using a disguise, can't just gut the fucks who annoy me." Kiyoshi moans.

"You can't do that anymore, period. We're not in the bloody mist anymore." Kojiro remarks, starting to walk away.

"I'll do as I fucking, please. Anyway, it's best we hurry up and find a fucking seal master, those Suna brats got on my nerves. Would love to gut them." Kiyoshi moves the conversation on falling in step next to his brother.

"I agree with finding the seal master, killing the Suna genin? Not so much." Kojiro says absentmindedly looking for the nearest bar.

"It's not like they matter, they're just kids, may as well kill them young. Saves doing it later." Kiyoshi banters.

Kojiro stops to look at his brother seriously.

"You didn't notice the tailed beast chakra lurking in him?" Kojiro asks.

"I did, all the more reason to let me fucking gut him!" Kiyoshi voices, trying not to shout.

"Shush, we're on a crowded street. Regardless, he'll be useful later. When we were in the Mizukage's office, I took the liberty to grab some files." Kojiro explains in a hushed whisper.

"This is why you're a slimy fuck, what files?" Kiyoshi says giddily.

"Thanks, slimy is my middle name. They were labeled 'Akatsuki' when I read them I found out where Juzo went. They're looking for the jinchuuriki for an unknown reason, and I have a feeling they'll be essential to keep alive for now." Kojiro recalls.

"They can't be gathering the jinchuuriki for a good fucking reason, more so it gives me a personal stake in it," Kiyoshi affirms seriously.

"A personal stake? If we just avoid it entirely, I'm sure we won't be too affected. We're missing-nin, we have no stake in it personally." Kojiro replies.

"Hell Incarnate..." Kiyoshi starts.

"What about it?" Kojiro asks, cutting him off.

"It gives off the same chakra and aura of a jinchuuriki, more so makes me a fucking target." Kiyoshi finishes.

"It does..? Oh shit, it does," Kojiro answers, dumbfounded. "Devoted Heaven doesn't do that. What does it seem like to you?"

"Sage Mode." Kiyoshi answers.

"Hmm." Kojiro begins to think.

Kojiro inwardly sighs, with their chakra feeling like those specific chakra patterns, it makes things much more complicated. He doubts that the Akatsuki will immediately go after his brother, but it's still a cause for concern. Generally speaking, a jinchuuriki is a village heavy hitter, their last resort. Or first, in Kumo's case.

"What the fuck are you thinking?" Kiyoshi wonders.

"Honestly, I wanted to avoid it. If Jūzō were in the group, they'd have to be similar to him at the very least. He didn't respect weaklings. While I do think we're strong, I doubt we could handle all of them. However many there are…" Kojiro thinks aloud.

Luckily the villagers seemed deaf as the days chatter down the street covered most of their conversation. Those who could hear doubtfully could recall it later, as they were all civilian.

"I'd love to fight them if they are as strong as Jūzō, but I'd don't appreciate the slightest chance of being targeted for something I don't even fucking have." Kiyoshi reasons.

"That's fair; I'd love to fight the Akatsuki too, don't get me wrong. Though, I don't want them going after you either, especially if they come in force," Kojiro agrees, spotting a bar down an alleyway. "There's the first bar. Let's go."

The brothers veer off the main street, making sure no one was listening. However, once they entered the alleyway they instantly felt watchful eyes from rooftops. Someone is tailing them, probably ANBU. Kakashi had made his report, it seems. They tactfully ignore the presence, civilians wouldn't notice the tag-along.

They entered the bar and took a look around, finding nothing but a few drunks, they sat at the bar. The bartender eyed them skeptically before walking over.

"What'll ya have?" He asks in a rough voice, mismatched from his twirled mustache.

"A heavy drink, been a long fucking day." Kiyoshi orders.

"The very same, on the rocks." Kojiro mirrors.

The bartender grunts, pulling out two shot glasses from below their vision and grabs a bottle of whiskey off the rack behind him. He sets the bottle on the counter none too gently and stares at the two newcomers.

"What brings you two to Konoha?" He asks, bringing out a rag and wiping down the bar.

Kiyoshi unscrews the top of the whiskey and pours doubles for him and his brother before setting it back down. Kiyoshi takes a swig before Kojiro answers.

"A little of this, a little of that," Kojiro replies, shooting down his glass.

"Not murder… but give it time." Kiyoshi pipes up, knowing the ANBU tailing them would hear it.

The bartender gives a hearty chuckle; civilians wouldn't get very far in Konoha with murder. His chuckling ceases as he sees the determined glint in the just slightly shorter one's eye. Kiyoshi pours himself another drink and swishes it down.

"Either way we're looking for someone. Not that you'd know who, or where, but maybe you can give us a hint." Kojiro comments, letting his brother pour him another double.

"For the right price…" The bartender winks.

This time it was Kojiro's turn for a hearty chuckle. He knew full well there was no way Kiyoshi was giving him the money, and he had just paid for all the Kumo weapons brought down.

"My partner here is the one carrying the money, and maybe we'll pay, maybe not." Kojiro twirls a palm facetiously.

"Oh? And what reason do I have to answer?" He says, picking up a glass and drying it out from the sink.

Kojiro unleashes his killing intent, directing it at the bartender. The ANBU tailing them moved closer but did not act, still entirely out of view. The killing intent was remarkably subdued, just enough to make a civilian piss himself, as the bartender did.

"My fucking mood." Kojiro answers pissed off for their situation, and the daunting task lies ahead.

"You should probably answer him, if not I may have to join in." Kiyoshi mentions, downing another double.

The bartender nodded quickly, setting down the glass and sitting on a stool behind the bar. He moved closer to listen to the question so he wouldn't miss a word. Kojiro had let off most of the intent but left just enough to make him feel anxious.

"Good, that's more like it," Kojiro says, flipping over his shot glass. "Where's the library the shinobi use? We're looking for some helping hands."

"Uh," the bartender starts apprehensively.

"Answer him; I'm losing my patience," Kiyoshi states, his eyes flaring red then back to black.

The bartender gulped, and his right hand started twitching. The ANBU drew a little closer, noting the chakra spike from the supposed civilian whom they knew to be The Stalkers of the Bloody Mist.

"Okay, okay! If you get caught, just don't tell them it was me. It's three blocks to the east of the academy; the students go there after they get out of school." He stumbles out.

"Good choice, thank you for the information," Kojiro says nonchalantly, concealing his killing intent.

Kiyoshi notices that his brother is finished gathering the intel. He decides to lean over the bar, grab a few more bottles of whiskey, before standing and leaving, followed closely by his brother.

"These are mine," Kiyoshi states, waving the whiskey at the bartender.

Kojiro gives a slight chuckle at the tired man's sigh. None of the drunks cared about the exchange, they've seen it all before, and they knew the right people would handle it. At least they would if they were sober.

Once in the alleyway, the two brothers smile at each other with a malicious grin, which had been fun. The ANBU tailing them eased off, they were under orders to observe for now, and if the brothers did anything too harsh, they'd then do what they were trained to. Kojiro and Kiyoshi walk off, looking for a map of the village. There would be a few littered around, for the guest shinobi and spectators would need them. They were close, Kojiro could feel it.


	12. Chapter Eleven: New Faces

TangentTwo: *Laughs maniacally*

TangentOne: *Two doors down* What the hell are you doing?

TangentTwo: *Laughing intensifies*

TangentOne: *Storms into Two's room* What in the bloody blue blazes is going on in here?

TangentTwo: *Being tickled by untold numbers of feathers*

* * *

The brothers entered the school district, and they felt hostile intent from their ANBU tail but did not act. It was a stalemate from both sides, yet the brothers knew they were told not to respond. If they had been, their encounter at the bar would have been much different. Kiyoshi would have had fun with his new toy.

They took a turn past the academy and avoided it, going to the library three blocks down. The ANBU let off slightly; the kids not in danger nearly as much. The brothers could feel one of their members drop off from the group and head towards the academy.

"Seems like they're reporting our visit. We should do this quick." Kojiro says.

"Can't we just kill them? Kubi wants blood!" Kiyoshi moans.

"Fuck's sake, no. Why do I always have to repeat myself to you?" Kojiro replies tiredly.

"Because one day you'll change your mind." Kiyoshi points out with a grin.

Kojiro just sighs and leads them to the library. Once inside, they ask the librarian for the section with the scrolls on seals, and they don't ask nicely. Scared witless, the librarian points out the area a few genin were sitting at in the back. The brothers walk over and look over one genin's shoulder finding the contents precisely what the librarian had said.

Kiyoshi walks quickly over to the group of three genin.

"You guys want to see a dead body?" Kiyoshi asks.

"No?" A genin returns questioningly.

"Great, you're coming with us then." Kiyoshi grabs two of the genin while entering heaven path, leaving the last one for his brother.

Kojiro enters heaven path and jolts forward towards the remaining child. He throws the girl over his shoulder and shoots out of the building followed quickly by Kiyoshi. Instantly, the ANBU were upon them, following closely. Unfortunately for the ANBU, the brothers had not stopped training once they left Kiri, keeping their bodies fit and supple for running. With the added benefit of heaven path, they were pulling ahead slightly.

A massive chakra radiating extreme killing intent launched from the academy and shot towards the backs of the retreating brothers. Though Kojiro and Kiyoshi knew it was the Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, they were not worried about him catching them. He was notoriously slow for his age. As they reached the giant walls of Konoha, they felt a few new presences in front, one of which they recognized.

Hatake Kakashi stood in their path, running through hand seals with his headband up. A few more ANBU were speeding through different hand seals from Kakashi. As the brothers drew closer to the wall, Kakashi finished his jutsu, a multitude of different natured bullets formed around him, mismatched in size. The bullets shot forward at varying speeds and courses, but the brothers dodged them all at the expense of their cargo who sustained a few flesh wounds.

The ANBU finished their hand seals, and a half dome of earth appeared around them, several stories high. Kojiro and Kiyoshi turn course fast, going in opposite directions. Near instantly, they had passed the dome wall and were scaling the wall with the help of chakra. Kojiro turned back to look at a seething Kakashi.

"We'll bring them back!" Kojiro calls back.

"At the very least their corpses!" Kiyoshi shouts after his brother.

They reached the top of the wall just as Hiruzen had arrived, Kiyoshi gave a jovial salute to him as they fell off the wall out of the village grounds. The brothers kept up the pace a while and didn't stop running.

* * *

They finally stopped in the Land of Rivers, unsurprisingly, the genin has passed out since they began running. Hence the silent journey. Kojiro surmised that their bodies couldn't handle the forces of the acceleration and course changes they made, keeping them quiet. Kiyoshi dropped his two male genin on the ground, and Kojiro threw his genin on them, effectively creating a pile.

"Kiyoshi, why don't you make the camp so I can handle the little ones? You're not known for liking kids." Kojiro teases.

"I'm not known for liking work, so seeing as it's the lesser of the two I'll do it." Kiyoshi reasons then agrees.

Kojiro separates the genin, tying their hand in a way they couldn't form hand seals with ninja wire. To make sure they didn't run, he tied their ankles so they could shuffle, but not walk or stride. That way he wouldn't have to carry them to a pissing spot every time they needed it. He then slaps them awake while sitting on his haunches.

"Wha-" one begins.

"Who-" the second tries.

"Why-" the girl asks.

"Shut it," Kojiro demands, forcing killing intent to its peak in his non-transformed state. "Listen closely; I'm not going to hurt you if you keep quiet."

All three nod and keep their mouths shut and sit up, trying to keep their balance.

"Me and my brother," Kojiro nod to Kiyoshi working diligently. "Are on a mission for the Raikage. We need a seal master for it, and you three were the best we could get. I highly doubt you know anything about the seal we're after, but we'll get you material to study. Once you think you can do it, we'll bring you where we need you. If you succeed, we'll bring you back to Konoha. If you fail, well I'm not exactly sure what will happen. My brother likes that side of things." As Kojiro gives the threat, Kiyoshi turns back with a malicious grin and a glint in his eye.

"Fucking finally!" Kiyoshi shouts, pulling out a seal and forcing chakra into it.

The three nod quickly, noticing the giant sword efficiently appearing out of thin air, to where the girl notices the seal.

"That's a Kiri standard storage scroll… right?" She asks.

"That it is. Last I checked I haven't talked to you, shut the fuck up, or I'll kill you." Kiyoshi seethes, sheathing Kubikiribōchō over his back.

"Kiyoshi, hold off on the threats for now," Kojiro begins towards his brother, then turning back to the girl. "I'm impressed you knew that. Konoha has records of Kiri standard use seals?"

The girl nods, visibly shaken from the older man's threat. The two boys shuffled back in fear for their life, but Kojiro ignores them. She noted the two looked more natural now than when they took her, something felt off then.

"Fucking Konoha, slimy cunts the lot of them," Kiyoshi mutters.

"Interesting," Kojiro says, standing and looking around.

Two tents have been set up in the forested area, a river was nearby for water and food, and the campfire burns brightly. The forest isn't so much a forest as it is a jungle, Kojiro noted. He looks in the trees to see a snake peering at them carefully before shuffling off. He pushes the thought out of his mind and turns to his brother.

"Give them some jerky; I'm heading to the nearest village to steal some lock and key seal documents," Kojiro says.

"Why the fuck am I looking after the little shits, you know I'd sooner kill them right?" Kiyoshi points out.

"You promised A that you would give him Kubikiribōchō, you've never broken your word before. Besides, if you went to the village it wouldn't exist when you left." Kojiro reasons.

"That's just par for the course if I didn't do it someone else would." Kiyoshi quips.

"Whatever, if you kill one to make sure it isn't the girl. She seems to be the smartest." Kojiro answers, taking off to the nearest Shinobi village, Shokuningakure no Sato in the Land of Rivers.

* * *

An hour later, Kiyoshi had still not given the children their allotted jerky, and the girl was starting to get brave.

"Hello, mister giant sword guy!" The girl starts.

"For the love of the fucking Sage. What the fuck do you want!" Kiyoshi bellows at the girl.

"The shorter one said we would get some jerky…" The girl says, not entirely asking.

"Did he? Well, when he gets back you can fucking take it up with him, can't you?" Kiyoshi returns.

"Okay… that's kinda fucking rude." The girl replies, standing up for herself.

Kiyoshi turns his head to face the girl, his eyes block red, killing intent smothering the entire camp, yet still just a small fraction.

"I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. I'm sure you didn't just say I was fucking rude. No. A smart brat keeps their fucking trap shut, because my friend Kubi likes blood, and he's not picky either!" Kiyoshi roars at the girl.

The girl was visibly abated, and the two boys passed out from the strength of the killing intent, but she held her ground.

"Just... some… fucking… jerky…" She bites out through the stress.

Kiyoshi halts his intent, turning back to normal.

"I like you," Kiyoshi admits, grabbing the jerky and taking it to the girl. "But don't ever argue back again, or Kubi will have your head."

"Wait, that's Kubikiribōchō, you're a Swordsman of the Mist?" She asks excitedly, her eyes sparkling.

"It is, how the fuck do you know that? You're just a fucking genin!" Kiyoshi interrogates.

"I… er… have a strict Shishou. I'm made to learn everything I can, and I'm not allowed to skimp on subjects like that." She says irritably.

"Interesting. I should let you know; I'm a Swordsman of the Bloody Mist, not that shithole it is now. My next question do you know who I am?" Kiyoshi pulls his maks down and grins maniacally with his sharp teeth.

"The last known wielder of Kubikiribōchō was Zabuza… but you don't look like him at all." She says quizzically.

"Oh him, well he's now, technically half the man he used to be." Kiyoshi begins to laugh uncontrollably.

"What do you mean?" She asks again, her interest peaked.

"I cut the fuck in half when I took Kubi from him. You should have seen it; it was fucking brilliant." Kiyoshi returns, still laughing hard.

"Oh…" she begins dejectedly. "So who are you? Wait, wait, wait. Just a hint." She says with a wink.

"A hint, eh? Hmm, I am a damn good murderer and worth a hundred million Ryo to Kiri." Kiyoshi hints.

"A hundred million..?" She says in wonder.

"Did I fucking stutter? Yes, a hundred million." Kiyoshi confirms.

"Wait, can you get my bingo book? It's in my back pocket." She asks nicely, showing her hands tied in front.

"You have a bingo book? I didn't think I would ever like a kid this much." Kiyoshi rivals, grabbing her bingo book and handing it to her.

As he did, he cut her restraints and let her move freely.

"Thank you," she begins, and much to his satisfaction sat back down and picked up the book. "Now where is the page..?" She wonders aloud.

Kiyoshi said nothing, waiting for her to find him with glee finally putting his mask back on. She flipped through the pages eagerly, and one of the other genin awake to the sound of it. Kiyoshi knocks the brat on the head, pushing him back into unconsciousness. The young girl ignores it entirely.

"Oh… my… Sage…" She says in awe, finding the page the brothers were on. "You're one-half of the Stalkers of the Mist!"

"Bloody Mist." Kiyoshi corrects her.

"Sorry..?" She asks, not quite understanding.

"Right, Kirigakure, was once known as the Bloody Mist Village right?" Kiyoshi states.

"Yes..?" She replies quizzically.

"Now that Mei 'absolute fucking cunt' Terumī, is the Mizukage, Kiri is not called the bloody mist anymore. That's a problem. So I refuse to go through just Mist as I can't stand what she's doing to Kiri." Kiyoshi explains.

"I see… isn't she the one who was next in line anyway?" The girl asks.

"God no! She's a waste of a kunoichi. I've bested her before, and it wasn't even that hard. If anything it would've been myself or my brother who was next in line." Kiyoshi affirm.

"Oh…" the girl replies intelligently, resting against a tree.

"You going to eat that? If not gimmie." Kiyoshi voices jovially.

She looks down at the jerky at her feet and quickly remembers why she even started talking to the nuke-nin. She grabs the bag of jerky and holds it close protectively while grabbing a stick from the pack.

"You can have one, I suppose." She holds out the one she picked.

"I do like you." Kiyoshi grins, taking the jerky.

She grabs another and munches on it greedily, decently pleased with the new bond she's formed.

* * *

Kojiro walks back into the camp expecting a very different scene to what appeared. Kiyoshi was asleep in his tent, snoring, and the girl was sat by the fire reading a bingo book. The two male genin were knocked out and laid on each other pretzel style. The girl looked up from her book when he came in, and he finally took note of her features.

She looks to be about twelve or thirteen, beige hair and pink eyes. Solid form and well built for her age and her eyes seemed very bright and vibrant. She wore a loose violet crop top and tight standard kunoichi pants. A jacket lay around her shoulders, and she was looking at Kojiro anxiously.

"Why are you not tied up?" He begins. "More importantly, why the fuck are you asleep, Kiyoshi!" He yells at the prone figure in the tent who stops snoring suddenly.

"Because I fucking wanted to?" Kiyoshi replies, refusing to move.

"This one is untied! Is there a fucking reason for that?" Kojiro roars back.

"Because he wanted to… 'fucking sleep.'" the girl replies, quoting Kiyoshi.

"That's why!" Kiyoshi begins laughing hysterically.

"Oh for fuck's sake… she's even like you. On that note, you like a kid?" Kojiro says, opening his brother's tent flap to look at him.

"As you said, she's a smart kid!" Kiyoshi shouts, still rolling around laughing.

"You can be such a child." Kojiro sighs, dropping the flap down.

"He said you'd say that." The girl points out tactfully.

"Well, moving on so I don't have to stay awake, here's your scrolls to study for the seals." Kojiro tosses the scrolls to her.

"You trust me that fast?" She asks quizzically to the retreating form.

"Kiyoshi does, that reasons enough for me," Kojiro replies, zipping the tent shut. "We barely trust anyone." He whispers to himself.

The girl listens to the last sentence carefully and thinks about it with a quick smile. She turns to the scrolls on the seals and sighs dejectedly at the contents.

* * *

Kojiro awakes again in cold sweats, the second night in a row as they had not rested until they made camp. His sleeping bag soaked to the bone. He sighs and sits up, sliding out of the sleeping bag as he stands. He then unzips the tent to see the girl reading quietly by a tree and Kiyoshi eating jerky, facing Kojiro's canvas. He notices the sweat on Kojiro's clothes but says nothing. The young girl looks up to see Kojiro exiting and smirks.

"You piss yourself last night?" She asks jokingly.

Kojiro looks at her seriously, but before he can speak, Kiyoshi cuts him off.

"Kanae, drop it. Now." Kiyoshi orders, no hint of playfulness present.

She nods in Kojiro's direction as if to say 'sorry,' and stuffs her nose back in her book. Kojiro nods towards Kiyoshi as a 'thank you,' and bumbles off to the river. As he washes, he hears the two chatter about something or other, hoping that it isn't about his father. Though, knowing Kiyoshi, he would wager it was more complaining than anything else. Once clean, he puts his underwear back on and wanders back to camp.

His scars brazenly shown from his entire body, from his collarbone to his knees, scars of all kinds littered it. Shortcuts, to long gashes, holes and patched skin. Once in the middle of camp, he hangs his wet clothes on a low branch to let them dry and heads to the fire so he can warm himself. Kanae looks at Kojiro's body and winces noticeably, as much as she can take threats, seeing the repercussions still hits hard. She's not a kunoichi yet, just a person with a headband.

"Any jerky left for me?" Kojiro asks, sitting down.

"Yeah, it's on top of the unconscious fucks," Kiyoshi says, laughing to himself.

"I just sat down, fucks sake," Kojiro says, standing back up and grabbing a mediocre bag of jerky and returning to his spot. "What have you learned?" He directs to the girl.

"Well, I've learned that this stuff is way out of my league at the moment. How long till you need me for this?" Kanae asks.

Kojiro considers her, it's true, for a genin these seals would be leagues above her level. They weren't even that difficult, considering how confusing seals could get. He knew for a fact, or at least believed for a fact, that the seals used on the Suna vault would be leagues above this. He couldn't see her becoming a seal master soon, or even in a couple of years time.

"We weren't given a time limit, but I'd assume the sooner, the better," Kojiro answers truthfully, accepting her into the group.

"Well, if this is all you need from me I might be able to get this done by the end of this quarter year." She says, remembering the dates.

"Three months? For that?" Kojiro asks quizzically; the girl learns fast if that's the case.

"Yeah, I think I have the basics down for some of the seals already. All I need now is practice paper and brush with ink." She says with a wink.

Kojiro inwardly facepalms, he'd forgotten to get that supplies from his quick raid on the village.

"Guess I'm making another pitstop at that village again today," Kojiro mutters. "Maybe I can grab some decent food for us too."

"You had fucking better; this jerky is shit." Kiyoshi moans loudly, rousing the male genin.

"Aye, the jerky isn't that great. Kumo's not known for its food, is it?" Kojiro asks playfully.

"Kumo is good at a few things; food is not one of them. I'd rather eat one of those tied up genin." Kiyoshi states, winking at Kanae.

The genin squealed in fright at the threat and looked at Kanae with worry. She was from their village and had been let go, yet she hadn't made any move to help them.

"Why didn't you untie us when they freed you?" The younger one asks quickly.

Kiyoshi stands, unsheathing Kubikiribōchō and pointing it at the tied up genin.

"Did I say you could talk? No. So shut the fuck up." Kiyoshi voices, his killing intent rising by the second.

The two boys try to fight the stress, writhing around in agony. To those who can't stand killing intent, it feels like a pressure is building in your chest, just waiting to burst. The younger one lets out a grunt before passing out, and the slightly older one looks at Kiyoshi in pure horror. Kiyoshi saunters to the boy, taking his time, holding Kubikiribōchō's point to the boys face.

"You ready to die, boy?" Kiyoshi asks.

"N-no!" The child squeaks out, chest throbbing painfully.

Kanae looks at the exchange with increasing worry, while she may not dislike her captors, those were still her village-mates.

"A shame, because I want to kill you." Kiyoshi pulls Kubikiribōchō above his head, spiking his killing intent slightly higher.

The boy's eyes roll up into his head, and his body falls limp in the jungle grass. Kiyoshi sheaths Kubikiribōchō and sits down at the campfire again, picking up the jerky he left behind.

"Now that's done, I suppose I'll dry my clothes and make that pit stop," Kojiro says nonchalantly.

Kojiro stands and flies through a few hand seals, a puff of subdued fire flows from his hands, just close enough to dry the clothes. Kiyoshi looks at his brother in surprise; he's never been able to use fire natured chakra before. Kojiro dons the same style uniform as he's been wearing since he was ten.

"That's new. Now wash mine." Kiyoshi barks at his brother.

"Suck a fat one; I'm off to get seals supplies for your new 'toy.'" Kojiro returns, referring to the girl sat against a tree.

"Well, this means it's your job now, Kanae." Kiyoshi stands and disrobes, handing his clothes to her, revealing his plethora of scars, but they seemed to be only battle wounds.

"Wait, what? Why the fuck do I have too? I'm trying to learn seals for your mission!" She exclaims.

"What did I say about talking back? Do you want to be tied up and in the same boat as those miserable failures?" Kiyoshi asks, still holding his clothes out for her to take.

"Fine…" She acquiesces and takes the clothes.

Kojiro jumps off towards the same village he raided the day before, ignoring the spat between the two.


	13. Chapter Twelve: Way of the Bloody Mist

TangentOne: I've just noticed something.

TangentTwo: You finally realized you're gay?

TangentOne: How the fuck am I supposed to answer that? If I say yes, then you win, if I say no it means I haven't figured it out, implying I'm gay without my knowledge.

TangentTwo: That's the point! ***Smiles***

TangentOne: Moving on, Riboruba means Revolver, doesn't it?

TangentTwo: Wow. It took you this long to find the reference, I'm disappointed.

TangentOne: Oh shut it, you're not my father.

TangentTwo: You don't know that! I am eons older than you. ***Smiles wickedly***

* * *

As Kojiro left and Kanae washed Kiyoshi's clothes, the camp fell silent. Shortly, the girl came back with the drenched clothes and hung them on the same branch Kojiro did with his, though she had to jump to reach it. As short as she was compared to the missing-nin, she felt like a dwarf. Kanae walks back to her designated tree and picks her book back up, but something kept nagging in her mind as she read. She eventually built up the nerve to ask, it's one thing to joke with an s-rank missing-nin, it's another to go against his word entirely. She had a feeling the scars were connected to the night sweats.

"Kiyoshi, I know you said to drop it, but your brother's scars… did they have anything to do with this morning?" She asks, hoping not to incur his wrath.

"They do, but it's his place to tell you, not mine." Kiyoshi answers neutrally.

"I see… your scars though. That one across your chest seems nasty." She points out, drawing her finger across it in the air.

"This one?" Kiyoshi points to the scar, that stretched from atop his right collarbone down across his front, stopping at his left hip.

"Yeah, yours seem like regular battle wounds. I know it's taboo to talk about a shinobi's scars… but I find them fascinating. One thing people always forget to realize when seeing them is that you survived it. What's the story behind it?" She asks brazenly.

"I got this from a 'really' fat shinobi like I don't think I can really explain how fat this guy was. Anyway, he was the Perfect Sage for the Bear summons. He slashed his long nails across my chest leaving what you see." Kiyoshi describes.

"What's a sage?" She asks, eyes sparkling intensely.

"A cunt. A really fat cunt." Kiyoshi returns.

"No, not the guy, what he was. You said he was a 'Perfect Sage for the Bears', what does that mean?" She asks passionately.

"I can't really tell you. Give me a moment," Kiyoshi performs a set of hand seals, before biting his thumb and slamming it on to the jungle floor. "Summoning Jutsu!"

A large puff of chakra smoke appears, with Riborubā appearing, dwarfing Kanae. Riborubā looks rather confused, before focusing on what he believes to be a threat as she wore the Konoha headband. She looks in awe at the giant Ocelot and feels the urge to pet him greatly control her. Riborubā stands and puffs his fur, growling low and radiating killing intent multitudes higher than Kiyoshi had first let her experience. She promptly passes out cold, and Riborubā looks more confused than ever.

"Well, not what I expected, but fucking hilarious nonetheless." Kiyoshi laughs, before turning to face Riborubā.

"Did you need me, Kiyoshi? She seems a little… below my caliber." He says, still confused.

"She's not an enemy. She asked me a question I can't answer, not because I don't know, more because I need my summons permission." Kiyoshi explains.

"What question?" Riborubā asks, sitting himself next to Kiyoshi.

"She asked me what a Sage was." Kiyoshi continues to explain.

"Ah, I see. It's not really my place either. She's not my summoner, nor is she a feline summoner." Riborubā returns.

"That's true." Kiyoshi starts to ponder the situation.

Riborubā sits patiently for his summoner to return from his thoughts.

"She could become one right?" Kiyoshi points out, much to his summons surprise.

"Well, yes, that is a possibility, but not one I expected of you," Riborubā states. "However she's not ready at all, nor is she that loyal to you."

"Don't worry then, I'll deal with it." Kiyoshi replies, letting go of his summon.

* * *

By the time Kanae had awoken, Kiyoshi's clothes had dried considerably, and Kojiro was back with supplies for her practice. He had laid them neatly next to her favorite spot, for which she silently thanks. She also then remembers the reason she was knocked out, and promptly wishes the large feline was back, she thought he was beyond cute and past adorable.

Kiyoshi could be heard snoring in his tent and Kojiro sat at the fire, deep in thought. She moved over to her spot via crawling, and he noted it but didn't act. His gaze never left the fire, and his mind kept wandering back to his early childhood. Memories he was not wanting to remember. Every now and again his mind would catch up and remember Hideo, the first person he'd ever tortured.

Kanae tactfully ignored him in favor of her work, making sure to keep the seals from exploding if she messed up. She failed twice, and they gave a small 'pop', that made Kojiro jump. Eventually, her curiosity got the best of her and she turned to him.

"About your scars… and the night sweats." She began, going for the direct route hoping it was less painful to talk about.

"What about them?" Kojiro asks, wrinkles crinkling his forehead.

"How did you…" She tried but failing to find the resolve.

"She wants to know how you got them." Kiyoshi notifies his brother through the tent, before drifting back to sleep.

Kojiro sighs, if she was going to be with them for awhile, it couldn't hurt to tell her.

"My-, no our, father," Kojiro spits on instinct, hearing Kiyoshi do the same in his sleep. "He wasn't a kind man. From when I was born to about four, my father experimented on me. From just gleeful torture to finding out how water reacts in the bloodstream. It's a miracle I survived, but there was always a medic-nin running about to make sure." Kojiro explains.

Kanae stays silent, this kind of history lesson isn't one you interrupt.

"He was brutal, for being only a chunin. Though, at my age back then, I suppose a chunin is not dissimilar from a god," Kojiro continues. "Every passing day it got worse, though I only remember the last month. It's just a thing I hate to remember, but with Hideo, and what we did to him…" Kojiro trails off.

"Hideo..?" Kanae asks after a few moments.

"Oh you wouldn't know, he's just a fat fuck. Well, was a fat fuck." Kojiro waves off, trying to hide his emotions.

"The same fat fuck Kiyoshi got that scar from?" She asks, remembering her earlier conversation with the aforementioned man.

"You do know then? Kiyoshi must've told you. Well, he did get a nice chunk of flesh from the Bear Sage." Kojiro comments light-heartedly, remembering the rage Hideo had shown for it.

"Kiyoshi said that too." Kanae recalls.

"That he took a chunk of his flesh? He does like to boast about his accomplishments." Kojiro chuckles.

"And my future conquests." Kiyoshi voice, inwardly winking at his brother.

The joke goes straight over the genin, but Kojiro laughed a little harder at the thought.

"No… the 'Bear Sage', something about how it wasn't his place to tell me what a 'Sage' is. When he tried to show me, or I think he tried to show me at least, all I remember is a large spotted lion pop up out of thin air before passing out." Kanae explains.

"Ah… that would've been Riborubā, his personal summon. For future reference, he's an Ocelot. Felines are very… particular about their species names." Kojiro explains.

"Kanae, always call him Riborubāoserotto." Kiyoshi laughs to himself.

"Brother, you may as well come out here." Kojiro calls.

"Fuck you, I'm trying to sleep in here!" Kiyoshi shouts, stifling a laugh.

"I will do that, Kiyoshi. Next time I see him, promise. Make it soon, please!" She pleads.

"You'll meet him when you're ready, until then fucking train. Now leave me be for fuck's sake. Can't get a wink of sleep with these cunts talking so loud!" Kiyoshi rants, falling back into his slumber.

"...Ignoring him. Do you not know what a sage is, Kanae?" Kojiro asks, anticipating the answer.

"I don't, and I don't suppose you can tell me?" She asks, batting her eyelashes.

Kojiro inwardly frowns, it's not his place, and if Riborubā couldn't tell her than he doubts Komori would be able to either. Kiyoshi said 'she'll meet Riborubā when she's ready', too, meaning something is already being worked out in that regard. Though, he thinks it's a little early, he's happy for his brother finally taking an interest in a child's development. Even if she ends up as annoying as he is.

"Unfortunately not, from what I gathered from Kiyoshi's rambling he would like to himself, given the right time." Kojiro explains.

Kanae sighs and looks back down to her work. Failing two times in a row on the third tier seal in the book wasn't bad, she quickly grabbed the concept of the first two. If Kiyoshi said she'd meet Riborubā when she's ready, then she'd like to get a move on. That large Ocelot peaked her interest more than anything else the brothers had talked about, the prospect of learning what a 'Sage' is was a good motivator.

* * *

A month and a half later, the boys were looking thin. Kiyoshi kept them just barely alive, though for what Kojiro had no idea. Kiyoshi seemed to have a purpose for them, though, as he had kept them alive. Kojiro and his brother had sparred a few times just in view of the camp. They never revealed their perfect paths, only keeping it to their base paths. If she decided on going back to Konoha, Kojiro didn't want her knowing too much. Kiyoshi gave in on that argument relatively quickly, much to Kojiro's surprise.

The two brothers were sat around the campfire, and the young male genin were leant against a tree, they had really mellowed out. Kanae was studying her seals and seemed deep in thought, so Kiyoshi had decided to let her work, which Kojiro was again surprised with. Generally, he would at least tease her about how shit seals were. After taking a single bite of his stale jerky, Kanae squealed and Kojiro turned to her, ready for a fight or to fling her away from an explosion. Instead, he found her jumping in place.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Kojiro asks irritatedly.

"I finished it! The whole first book, now I just need to move on to the second volume… these seals are tough. I think I have the concept down, though, and I'm sure I could get the second done much faster!" Kanae exclaims.

"I seriously think we should just slaughter Suna, saves us a fuck ton of time." Kiyoshi offers up, bored of inaction.

"I doubt we would survive like I said before. We can't really fight ten-thousand or more shinobi at a time, even if most would be genin." Kojiro says tiredly, though he agrees somewhat with his brother, the inaction was getting to him.

"I fucking hate doing nothing, where's the nearest non-important village?" Kiyoshi asks.

Kojiro considers him for a moment, yes, it means he would slaughter a village of civilians if he answered. Though it would also mean his brother's boredom would be abated and he could survive the next month and a half. He sighed inwardly in defeat before pointing southwest.

"That way, it's a small village of river fisherman. While you're there, pick up some fish, I'm hating this jerky, and we're running low." Kojiro asks.

"Why though? Are you going for a quick lay?" She asks with a wink.

"No, I'm going to kill all of them. Why? Want to tag along?" Kiyoshi states blandly, yet truthfully.

Kanae sat silent for a moment, they had been open with their opponents before, but murdering villagers was something she didn't think they did.

"What's the point? They can't fight back." She tries to reason calmly.

"If that stopped me, I'd hardly ever have to fight, and what's the point in that?" Kiyoshi returns, hoping for her to realize why he's doing it.

"But at least with shinobi, they have a chance for a lucky shot… civilians are different." She tries again.

"Kanae, you need to push that Konoha shit out of your mind. Civilians are there to serve and be used by us. When they cease to be useful, they die. That is the law, one Konoha will deny. It's how nature has governed this world since before ninja villages were commonplace," Kiyoshi explains. "This is The Way of the Bloody Mist, either accept it and prosper or die by another's hand."

After he finishes his lecture, he leaps to the nearest tree and heads for the village. When he's out of sight, Kanae turns to Kojiro to see him looking at her intently. His brother was right, as far as he was concerned, and he wanted to know if she learned that or not.

"What do you think, Kojiro-san?" She asks.

"He's right." Kojiro replies easily with a glint in his eye.

"What if they have a use to the shinobi of this country?" She tries again.

"Their only purpose to us, as missing-nin, is to steal from and relieve stress. As long as they can be used for those two things, I couldn't care less what happens to them." Kojiro explains with a wave of his hand.

Kanae sat, frustrated, but Kiyoshi's words reverberated in her mind as she worked. 'Push Konoha from your mind, this is The Way of the Bloody Mist.'

* * *

Kojiro studied Kanae's work from the campfire, he had just finished his workout and broke a sweat. His eyes darted between the open pages and the seals she drew on the paper, which was running low. He'd have to make another pit-stop at the shinobi village. Kanae notices his gaze and looks up from her work with a raised eyebrow.

"Why do you stay? Why not try to run?" Kojiro asks the girl.

She sighs and leans back against the tree, now's a good time as any to take a break.

"Given who you two are, and how weak I am, I figured staying is healthier." She replies honestly.

"I see, so it's only to save yourself? What about caring for your two friends over there?" Kojiro points to the husks of children, just barely alive.

"They aren't my friends, and there's nothing I can do for them anyway. Even if I wanted to, they'd be just as broken either way. Kiyoshi isn't the easiest person to deal with." She points out matter-of-factly.

"You've got that right," Kojiro chuckles. "Speaking of, why are you so… natural around us? We're from The Bloody Mist era in Kiri. On top of that, we're missing-nin."

"I don't know, honestly. Normally I keep to myself and read or train, my Shishou only ever trained me when he had spare time. He's in ANBU, so he's not always around." Kanae replies.

"It seems like you're at the very least, gregarious. I think Kiyoshi has taken a liking to you, that's not normally a good thing, but this time seems different somehow." Kojiro comments.

"What do you mean?" She questions.

"Normally you'd be dead, probably eviscerated, for standing up to him the way he told me you did. It's quite interesting to watch his interactions with you as well, the only time he's ever taught anyone anything, was when he taught me the basics of our style. The rest I learned on my own." Kojiro explains.

"You mean, he actually likes teaching me? That stuff about 'The Way of the Bloody Mist'?" She continues.

"Seems like it, normally he wouldn't even worry about what a captive thinks. Look at the other two." Kojiro again shoves his thumb at the other two genin or lack thereof.

"...Huh." Kanae simply answers whilst looking at the other two.

"To top it off, he even showed you Riborubā, something he's never done to anyone who's survived before." Kojiro explains.

"So what are you saying?" She asks, turning back to Kojiro.

"Take his lessons to heart. He wants you to understand his words and actions, but more importantly, he wants you to understand the meaning behind them." Kojiro says with finality, grabbing the last bag of jerky.

* * *

Kiyoshi returns in a nearby tree, with only a few drops of blood on his clothes. If Kojiro hadn't known any better, he'd say there was only a workplace accident. A nail on the thumb or an accidental papercut. Kojiro knew it had more to do with keeping the slaughter's brutality from the young genin, she isn't quite ready to accept those kinds of actions. He plops down next to the campfire and pulls out two storage scrolls. He places the larger one on the ground and runs chakra through it, a mountain of fish appears out of it, much to Kojiro's delight.

"Thank the fucking Sage! It's about time we had a decent fucking meal. That jerky is horrid." Kojiro comments.

"Fucking right? Kanae, this is yours." Kiyoshi says, throwing the second seal to the girl.

"What is it?" The girl asks, grabbing it from the air.

"A dead body! Just fucking open it." Kiyoshi jokes, sitting next to the fire.

Kojiro grabs three fish from the pile and shoves sticks through them in the background as Kanae pushes chakra into the seal hesitantly. To her dismay, a dead body drops onto her lap from out of the scroll, smelling of burnt flesh and blood stains. She hurls up the jerky from before as Kojiro laughs his ass off.

"Oh shit wrong one!" Kiyoshi pulls out a bunch of seals from his pouch, flicking through until he finds the right one. "Ah, this is it, I hope."

When Kanae regains her sense, she quickly stores the body back and throws the seal over to Kiyoshi. Still retching, Kiyoshi throws her a seal with slightly different markings. She puts it on the ground and pushes chakra into it, backing up quickly in case it is another dead body. Fortunately, a tent roll and supplies for it pop out of the seal with minimal chakra smoke. She turns to look back at the larger man and notices the fish now cooking on the fire.

"You got this tent for me?" She asks quizzically.

"No, I got it for the idiots tied to the fucking tree." Kiyoshi quips, watching the fish cook with hungry eyes.

"Thank you. You didn't have to." She says, beginning to set the tent.

"Don't mention it. Ever." Kiyoshi voices, in a tone that could not be deciphered by the girl.

Kojiro looks at his brother happily, it's been a long time since he's cared for anyone. This seems more human, something Kojiro is pleased with. His thoughts quickly turn back to the cooking fish, reminding him of home. An image of his father passes through his mind, and his gut wrenches, but he pushes it away in favor of the now cooked river fish. Kiyoshi and Kojiro grab their respective closest fish the second it looks cooked and dig in greedily.

Kanae watches them eat as she sets up her tent, either they'll give her food or they'll let her work. When she finishes pitching the tent she moves back to her spot against the tree and watches as they put another two fish on the fire. Kiyoshi looks over at her and nods his head towards the cooking fish.

"If you don't hurry and eat it, I fucking will." Kiyoshi states.

"Fucking finally, I'd thought you'd never let me!" She exclaims, jumping up from her position and grabbing a stick with a well-done fish on it.

"Next time just grab a fucking fish after us, I hate wasting effort to tell you." Kiyoshi points out grabbing another fish.

"Thank you, Kiyoshi." She replies through mouthfuls of river fish.

"Will you stop thanking me for fuck sake." Kiyoshi demands thirdly, glaring at her.

"Do you not appreciate a pretty girl thanking you?" She asks, batting her eyelashes.

"Do you want to see a plethora of dead bodies? Because I've got a lot, and I have no problems shoving them into your tent while you're asleep." Kiyoshi grins madly, pulling his mask down.

Kanae retches, thinking of the last dead body she'd seen. She shuts up and eats her fish, as Kojiro laughs in the background.

"You're a little young for him anyway, Kanae." Kojiro comments, grabbing his third fish.

"I already have a conquest anyway." Kiyoshi winks towards his brother.

"Aye, 'conquest' is an understatement for how difficult it will be. You're seriously way in over your head, she's out of your league." Kojiro promises through mouthfuls of fish.

"If I can kill her, she's in my league." Kiyoshi states, finally pulling his mask up.

"Who are you talking about?" Kanae asks, finishing her fish and patting her full stomach.

"You'll find out in due time if you make the right choice when the time comes." Kiyoshi answers ominously.

"Oh," Kanae drags out in a spooky manner. "So ominous."

"Note to self must check to see how many dead bodies will fit into Kanae's tent with her also in it." Kiyoshi mumbles to himself.

She quickly turns back to her sealing work, letting the older men eat in peace, hopefully avoiding the wrath of Kiyoshi and his dead bodies. Kojiro and Kiyoshi stay up late that night, and when they hear the now familiar breathing of their seal user, they begin talking.

"Kiyoshi, what exactly are you trying to do with this girl? It seems like you want to teach her everything you know." Kojiro comments, putting the mountain of fish back in the storage seal.

"She's worth teaching. I don't know what it is about her, but she's like us, in a way." Kiyoshi explains.

"I felt that too, but I didn't know you'd come to like someone this much. It's the first time… well ever." Kojiro replies, sitting down back to back against his brother.

"I don't know what it is, but she's willing to risk death to get something." Kiyoshi points out, thinking deeply.

"You showed her Riborubā, and she's not dead." Kojiro points out.

"She had a question, and he was the only one who could tell her. It takes a lot to ask something of us." Kiyoshi says, closing his eyes.

"Aye, that it does. I enjoy seeing you teach her, you seem to be happier." Kojiro answers honestly.

"It's better I teach her than those cowards in Konoha. She deserves a chance in life." Kiyoshi admits, for once showing a sliver of compassion.

Kojiro smiles, he would head out to the shinobi village tomorrow, he needs to pick up some more seal supplies. He stood up and patted his brother on the shoulder, and headed into his tent.

"You'd best never mention this either!" Kiyoshi shouts towards his brother.

Kojiro just sighs and zips his tent up once inside. Little did they both know, Kanae was still awake and listening to their conversation.


	14. Chapter Thirteen: Fateful Encounter

TangentOne: What the hell are you doing?

TangentTwo: ***Munch*** Eating, why?

TangentOne: Because that looks like a dead carcass wrapped in bacon.

TangentTwo: Yeah, it's a baby calf. I like 'em crispy! ***Munch***

TangentOne: I have no words.

TangentTwo: Good! Guess you'll have no issues reading this bill then, huh? ***Grins***

TangentOne: ***Reads aloud*** Four hundred million ryo for... the escorts. Almighty fucking help me.

* * *

September rolls around, a month and a half later from when Kanae was gifted a tent. Kiyoshi had made progress in teaching Kanae, in that she finally had begun to listen intently. Before it was more of a reluctant acceptance, now she seems eager. At least on the outside. Kanae had another breakthrough with the seals and had finished both books she had been given. Since then, she's been studying the inner workings of more complex seal locks, hoping to gain insight on whatever the men needed.

Kojiro packed his tent when he awoke, finally having a night of peace from his nightmares. Once packed, he kicks Kiyoshi's tent, to find him missing. He looked inside to find a kunai on the bedroll.

There's no whorehouse around here… Kojiro muses before flexing his sensing ability.

As he does so, Kanae flies past him as if kicked in the stomach. She hits a tree at the back of the clearing with the crack of a bone and slumps to the ground. Kojiro instantly reacts, entering heaven path and searching for the assailant. Kiyoshi strolls into the camp leisurely, with no care for anything in the world but his whistling. Kojiro sighs and exits heaven path as Kiyoshi passes him with a jovial wave.

"Morning brother, you must be careful, there's news of flying bodies about." Kiyoshi jokes, still walking toward Kanae.

"Right, well, I hope she's not pissed you off." Kojiro answers, beginning to pack up Kiyoshi's tent.

"Quite the opposite, she finally agreed to spare with me." Kiyoshi says jovially.

"Oh right, and you think kicking her that hard will teach her anything?" Kojiro asks with a 'tsk' at the retreating form.

"Worked for you didn't it?" Kiyoshi winks. "Though I didn't kick her that hard, she had most of the offense."

"Right then, make sure she stays alive. Suna's vault won't open itself." Kojiro quips.

Kiyoshi strolls over to the moaning Kanae and clicks his tongue.

"Even Kojiro could take that hit, and that was when he was seven." Kiyoshi points out to Kanae, laughing slightly.

He watches as she holds her side, waiting for her to get back up onto her feet to continue the spar. Instead, she just groans in pain and clasps her side every time she breathes.

"Help… me… will you?" She gasps out trying to sound sassy.

"Fine, but only this once." Kiyoshi mutters, picking her up into his arms.

Kojiro whistles at his brother finally packed their tents and erased the campsite from history. Everything except Kanae's tent.

"You carrying her the whole way to Suna? I expect not, she has to pack her things. You never helped me like that when I had a broken rib." Kojiro chastises.

"Just put the tent down, I'll buy you whatever you want later." Kiyoshi offers.

"If we get the rod, I won't need your money. Besides, she's your responsibility, you are packing her tent." Kojiro smiles, sealing the tents he's packed away, and picking up the two genin husks over his shoulders.

"Sometimes I wonder why I haven't killed you." Kiyoshi mutters, putting Kanae down and begins to pack her tent and seals.

"Because you love me?" Kojiro reminds him.

"Note to self, Kojiro is never getting laid, and when he next sleeps, his manhood will leave him." Kiyoshi mutters to himself.

"His scars… stop him getting laid already…" Kanae manages out.

"I really like you, you know that right?" Kiyoshi says playfully.

Koijro looks between the two quickly before shrugging and taking off towards the Suna border. He wasn't using Heaven path, so they'd catch up quickly enough.

"I know… I'm perfect..." Kanae mutters out, still struggling with her broken rib.

"Well fuck you, would be nice to reciprocate the fucking gesture." Kiyoshi shouts at her jovially, finishing his packing.

He then enters heaven path and seals away all he's packed and picks up Kanae in his arms again. Then Kiyoshi launches forward, stressing her broken rib and making her groan in pain. He catches his brother quickly, who enters heaven path upon seeing him approach and they head towards the Suna border at a breakneck speed.

* * *

An hour passed in relative silence and the Land of Wind's desert peers over the horizon. However, something was off, and Kojiro and Kiyoshi stop abruptly. A large pond was on the grassy side, one that shouldn't be there. As soon as they stop just in front of the body of water, it explodes into near a hundred shinobi. The water disappears as the shinobi form. Stood at the front of the group was a face Kojiro knew well, Asuka.

"Hello, Shishou." Asuka says, twirling a Kunai.

"You're not getting your fucking money back, it's with the whores now." Kiyoshi states, holding Kanae much more protectively than before.

"Hasegawa Asuka, Mei actually trained you to be a Hunter-nin, huh?" Kojiro asks.

"Can I gut her now?" Kiyoshi asks with a smirk.

"You can gut the rest, she's mine." Kojiro says back, staying in heaven path.

Kiyoshi shifts the small Kunoichi to one arm and draws Kubikiribōchō, shifting to hell path.

"Mei-sama trained me personally. My first mission is to bring you two back." Asuka replies, flicking her kunai up and grabbing its handle.

"I knew you had potential, but hunter-nin this quick? Impressive." Kojiro replies, dropping the genin to the ground.

He draws his tanto and ninjato and forms the heaven path stance. Once ready, Asuka launches forward, assaulting Kojiro's defenses effortlessly. She never lands a hit, but she keeps him on the defensive. Soon enough she starts making flesh wounds in Kojiro's body, marking him with streaks of red. Kiyoshi watches the rest of the still shinobi, making sure no one interrupts this fight.

Kojiro continues up his failing defense, barely stopping a slice to his throat. Then he steps back once and begins to be pushed back to better defend himself. The attacks from Asuka speed up, getting harder to block for Kojiro, and eventually, she lands a debilitating strike on his throat, making that Kojiro dissipate in water. She turns back around to find Kojiro staring down at her with a malicious grin.

"Did you really think you were winning?" Kojiro says, earning him another assault from Asuka.

The first strike in that assault was knocked back with the back of his palm, electing not to use his blade. He body flickers behind her and in one swift strike, cuts both tendons in the back of her knees. She falls to the ground, helpless, and he cuts the achilles tendon next, effectively crippling her.

"Stay here for a bit, will you? I've got a few other opponents who are more capable, I hope." Kojiro says the last two words, setting off Kiyoshi who kept a hold of Kanae the whole time he slaughtered the hunter-nin.

Kojiro jolted forward and hit each shinobi in a zig-zag pattern. Each shinobi his blade touched was crippled in some fashion, the loss of the use of their arms, the use of their leg, their hands and some lost their lives. Kojiro effectively crippled thirty shinobi before the rest were able to react, jumping back to avoid his blade. The ones Kiyoshi had targeted lay in pools of blood, piss, shit and intestines. Kojiro turns to his brother with a glint in his eye and a smirk on his lips.

"You can have the rest, brother. Asuka needs my attention." Kojiro says, sheathing his blade and walking back to the crippled ex-apprentice.

"This is why I keep you alive, brother." Kiyoshi states, launching himself as the remaining hunter-nin.

Kojiro stood above Asuka, somewhat sad with the way this turned out. Her eyes were pleading him not to kill her, she had so much to live for.

"Do you know who killed Gozou?" Kojiro asks the prone figure, sitting down on his haunches.

"No… why?" She returns, eyes beginning to glisten with tears.

"I did, and I promise you, it felt great." Kojiro replies, shattering his ex-student.

"How could you!" She roars, swinging her arms just short of him, tears falling freely.

"Because I could, and I wanted to." Kojiro answers solemnly, not quite regretting his next action.

Kojiro flipped his tanto around, holding it in a reverse grip.

"He was so kind to everyone! All he wanted was to help Kiri!" She continues, stopping her useless arm swinging.

"I actually liked you, Asuka. As much as it may not have felt like it, those two weeks, it's true. It pains me to do this, but you force my hand." Kojiro says just as the groaning of the other Hunter-nin died down.

"Then don't do it… let me go back to Kiri… let me go back and grieve my father." Asuka pleads.

"You can grieve with him, wherever he is." Kojiro promises, jutting his blade down into the small of her neck, severing the spinal cord.

Kojiro stood and looked at the battlefield, his brother and Kanae were covered in blood, a small intestine was playing the role of a hat on Kiyoshi's head. He strode over to the two, finding that Kiyoshi was checking over his charge.

"She alright?" Kojiro asks.

"Well, apart from constantly freaking out because of the gallons of blood she's covered in, yeah she's fucking dandy." Kiyoshi laughs.

"Great, I'm sure one of these fucks has a first-aid kit. Get her rib patched up, I'll grab the two other genin." Kojiro leaves the two behind and walks to the genin.

"How the fuck do you patch a person up?" Kiyoshi asks, he's not known to use first aid.

"Well unless you want me as the one looking at her tits, figure it out," Kojiro answers, looking at the two dead genin at his feet, the Hunter-nin got to them. "These two are dead."

"Fucking cunt." Kiyoshi places Kanae onto the ground and tries to figure out how to patch her up.

Kojiro sighs and picks up a first aid kit, then walks to his brother holding out a roll of gauze.

"Take this, and wrap it around her chest tightly at the broken ribs position, the whole width, not top to bottom." Kojiro explains. "That should hold it until her chakra heals it up fully."

"Got it, I think." Kiyoshi responds, following his brother's instructions.

Kanae grunts in pain, but never opens her eyes. The sight around her was more painful than her ribs, and she didn't want to see it. She found the pressure ease up on her lung as the gauze wrapped the bone tighter to its break, effectively setting it.

"Good job, now you can set a broken rib." Kojiro comments praisingly.

"Kojiro, would you mind holding your arm up a second?" Kiyoshi asks.

"Nah, I enjoy my bones in the correct state. I've never had a broken one before, and I intend on keeping it that way." He replies, taking off into the desert.

Kiyoshi picks up Kanae and moves her towards a less bloody area before setting her back down. He then grabs a seal, and Kanae opens her eyes to look at what he's doing. He pushes chakra into the seal, revealing his monstrous cloak from Kumo. Then he throws it at her.

"Put it on." Kiyoshi orders.

Kanae quickly wraps herself in the cloak, and to Kiyoshi, it looks like a baby in a bundle. He laughs loudly, much to her chagrin.

"What's so funny?" She asks, still pained but feeling better.

"You look like a fucking baby!" Kiyoshi roars with laughter.

Kanae's cheeks turn bright red and she eyes him maliciously.

"Well sorry! People from Konoha aren't giants like you Kiri folk!" She exclaims.

"I'd rather be a giant then a Konoha coward." Kiyoshi replies swiftly, not wanting to lose a banter battle with her.

"You know, not all Konoha shinobi are weak." Kanae points out.

"When one is strong enough to kill me, then I'll change my opinion on it." Kiyoshi offers.

"I bet the Hokage could kill you." She answers, thinking she's won.

"I'd love to see him try. Would be a great morning workout before I fight some really strong, like the Raikage." Kiyoshi states.

"You're just saying that because he's old! You know what they say about old Shinobi, right? They're old for a reason." Kanae replies.

"You know what, when we next go to Konoha, I'll kill him and prove it. I'll even take on ANBU at the same time." Kiyoshi promises, no hint of a lie or fear in his tone.

Kanae doesn't have a response, so she tightens the cloak around her. Kiyoshi accepts her concession of defeat and picks her back up bridal style. He then shifts to heaven path and shoots after his brother.

* * *

The three stop when Suna comes into view, the giant walls of the village barring any intrusion except through the main gate. Kiyoshi sets his charge on the ground and looks towards Kojiro, who seems deep in thought.

"So slaughter?" Kiyoshi asks, no real expectations.

"No." Kojiro denies for the thousandth time.

"So, seeing as you won't let my fun, we tunneling in?" Kiyoshi offers a good plan for a change.

"Well, we could tunnel into Suna, or we could scale the walls. Either way, I'm thinking we'll need to tunnel into the vault room anyway." Kojiro gives a choice.

"As much fun as scaling the wall would be, it's smarter to tunnel from outside of Suna. They may be dumb fucks but they would notice a huge fucking hole in the dirt." Kiyoshi points out, much to Kanae's surprise.

"Wait, you're not just muscle?" Kanae quips.

"You do know I'll still happily kill you, right?" Kiyoshi questions, glaring at her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You remind me once a week." Kanae points out nonchalantly.

"Well if you keep sassing me, you'll wake up with a tent full of dead bodies." Kiyoshi promises.

"Alright, shut up you two. One of you is bad enough…" Kojiro comments, flipping through a few hand seals.

When he finished, he submerged into the sand, finding earth jutsu just as easy as it used to be. Even better, he found it much easier than normal due to the earth already being broken down in the form of sand. He 'swam' towards Suna's walls underground, using his sensing ability to lead him towards the population. Kiyoshi watched as his brother disappeared from sight before turning to Kanae.

"What nature releases do you know?" Kiyoshi queries.

"Water… I'm just a genin you know." Kanae replies.

"When I was a genin, I knew three, and you say Konoha-nin aren't cowards." Kiyoshi replies, disappointed.

"Knowing one release, and being a coward, are not synonymous." Kanae retorts, standing on her own feet for the first time today.

"Oh, now you can walk. Making me fucking carry you." Kiyoshi says then mutters to himself.

"I thought you liked carrying pretty girls." Kanae replies with a wink.

"Who said you were pretty? I've seen prettier shits, namely mine, they're golden." Kiyoshi retorts, laughing to himself.

Kanae pouts and waits for him to stop laughing before replying.

"Well, am I coming with you into Suna? Figured you needed me for something." She returns, pouting still.

"Yes you are, so shut up." Kiyoshi voices.

Much to her dissatisfaction, Kiyoshi picks her up again, keeping her wrapped in the cloak. Then he throws her onto his shoulder so he can use his hands for the jutsu. He shifts through them quickly, disappearing with Kanae under the sand which fills itself above him, not a hole to be recognized. He follows Kojiro's chakra signal, making sure to keep oxygen flowing through the sand down to their tunnel.

Eventually, he catches up to Kojiro, who had stopped and created a small room under sandstone. The room was not tall enough for any of them to stand, and barely fit them as they squatted.

"Took you long enough, what the fuck were you talking about?" Kojiro asks.

"He doesn't think I'm pretty." Kanae says simply.

Kojiro studies the girl, then looks back to Kiyoshi.

"Sometimes you can be right, brother." Kojiro agrees.

Kiyoshi begins laughing, starting small. As the reality of the joke sinks in, and the pout of his charge's face in his periphery settle, he starts to roar laughing. When he finally settled down, Kanae had turned pink, and Kojiro was smiling.

"You two suck sometimes." Kanae says.

"Only sometimes?" Kojiro asks quizzically.

"Only sometimes." She affirms.

Kojiro shrugs and turns back to Kiyoshi.

"The vault seems like a blackout under the village, there are other underground buildings, but the only one I can't tell anything about would likely be the vault. I can't tell if it's hollow or just a foundation, but it seems too far down for the latter, and I can sense four more in a room in front. I can't promise it's the vault, but from the Raikage's explanation, this would be the likely bet." Kojiro explains.

"Wait, we're on a mission for the Raikage?" Kanae asks dumbfounded.

"We are, you're along for the ride. We already told you that, anyway." Kojiro explains.

"You did? I must not have been listening." Kanae replies.

"An S-rank for your first mission, she's doing better than you Kojiro." Kiyoshi jokes.

"I highly doubt this is her first mission." Kojiro points out, and Kanae nods in agreement.

"Her first mission that fucking matters, Konoha missions a baby could finish." Kiyoshi returns, laughing harder.

"Well, my first mission was painting a fence." Kanae answers.

"See what I fucking mean!" Kiyoshi bellows with laughter.

"Yeah, the missions in Kiri, even for the genin, are generally hunter missions. Genin go out to hunt hides and things like that, learning essential trade skills. Fucking lazy ass baby pampering Konoha has you painting?" Kojiro answers with a question, dumbfounded.

"It teaches us to move our limbs better." Kanae replies, trying to defend her village.

"I fucking heard it all now!" Kiyoshi topples over, even in the confined space he finds room.

Kojiro just spits and shakes his head.

"That's a waste. It took you three months to learn lock and key seals, and they have you painting fences. Fuck's sake," Kojiro continues, running through more hand seals. "We'd best get going, I hate being this far from water."

"True, not being around water fucking sucks." Kiyoshi agrees through abated laughs before calming down completely.

Kojiro finishes the jutsu and launches through the sand, and Kiyoshi throws Kanae back over his shoulder and follows Kojiro with his own jutsu.


	15. Chapter Fourteen: The Vault

TangentOne: I must say, I'm not that big on this arc. Seems to lack finesse.

TangentTwo: You wrote it, suck it up buttercup.

TangentOne: It seems that you lack tact.

TangentTwo: ***Shrugs*** You've told me that before, yet I'm always the one to get us out of sticky situations.

TangentOne: By hopping dimensions or teleporting away from an extremely fast projectile, and that's only after you entice the people to attack us in the first place.

TangentTwo: ***Smiles innocently*** I have no idea what you're talking about!

* * *

Kojiro tunnels until he hits a sandstone wall and enters hell path. He juts a fist forward, cracking the wall. He punches it once more and the wall crumbles, leaving a man-sized hole for him to enter. He does so and is instantly beset upon by four ANBU. It was exactly what he had sensed before, but something felt off. They attacked him with a fierce rotation, one would attack then jump back, letting another fight.

Not long after the fight began, Kiyoshi entered the room through Kojiro's opening. His eye sparkled and he left Kanae back in the tunnel, unsheathing Kubikiribōchō and swiftly killing the person closest to him. That left Kojiro an opening to unsheath his ninjato, and he started twirling it around. He then straightened the blade just in time to deflect a slash from his right. He quickly ripostes and stabbed the ANBU through his heart, spraying blood everywhere.

Kiyoshi darts forward the furthest ANBU from the entrance, and swings Kubikiribōchō towards him. The ANBU, as smart as he is, tries to deflect the massive executioner's blade. When it connects with his Kunai, it cuts straight through it and digs itself into the ANBU, who crumbles to Earth and appears behind Kiyoshi. The ANBU places a kunai on Kiyoshi's throat but finds a ninjato placed at his own.

Kojiro had drawn his tanto to deflect a kunai thrown from the other ANBU and sliced the one in front of him with his ninjato. The shinobi fell to the ground and Kiyoshi had body flickered instantly to the last ANBU, grabbing him by the throat and crushing his airway. He drops the corpse and sets Kubikiribōchō on his back.

Kanae shivers at the sight of the blood but doesn't close her eyes. The fight barely lasted five seconds, and those two were exhilarating to watch. She stands in the room and walks to the large door that was covered from top to bottom in a seal so complex, she barely understood a tenth of it. As she studies, Kiyoshi seals the bodies away and Kojiro looks at him curiously before sheathing his blades and standing next to Kanae.

"So, Kanae, how long will this take you?" Kojiro asks, looking at the complex seal.

"I'm not sure. Give me a to study it, I'm sure I could figure it out." Kanae responds, never looking away.

"Careful, it's probably full of countermeasures." Kojiro says, turning away.

"Tell me something I don't know…" Kanae mutters.

"You can be a huge cunt sometimes." Kiyoshi voices, sealing the last of the bodies.

"You're not pretty." Kojiro answers her.

"Remember when I said you guys suck sometimes? I change my mind. You guys are dicks all the time." Kanae returns.

"She's learning." Kiyoshi states laughing heartily.

"Aye, that she is," Kojiro returns, sitting in a corner cross-legged. "I'm going to meditate, it's been a while and I feel like I've hit a roadblock on Devoted Heaven."

"No, you fucking don't you cunt, set up the fucking camp. I'll block the entrance, I was able to find some really fun seals at that finishing village." Kiyoshi says, a mad glint in his eyes.

"We're not setting a camp up down here, are you fucking stupid? Either way, this training is more important." Kojiro replies, closing his eyes.

"But, my seals." Kiyoshi states, upset.

"You can set up whatever the fuck you want, but I'm not pitching a tent down here. Hopefully, Kanae will be done before we need to sleep." Kojiro answers.

"I doubt that ugly people take forever to do things." Kiyoshi quips.

"Can you two shut the fuck up? I'm trying to work over here!" Kanae quips, hitting the wrong part of the seal.

An explosion filled the room with a deafening sound. Kiyoshi acted faster than the explosion, entering heaven path and darting forward, grabbing Kanae and throwing her into the tunnel with a precision not known by him. The brothers withstood the explosion, gathering a multitude of third-degree burns before it stopped. As the room died down, Kojiro gives a look of pure annoyance and his eyes twitch.

"Fuck me, what the hell did you do Kanae?" Kiyoshi asks a hint of anger in his tone.

"Fuck if I know! That bloody thing is the most complex seal I've ever seen!" She calls back from the tunnel, then crawls out.

"Huh, who would've thought Suna actually had complex seals." Kiyoshi jokes to himself.

"Try not to do it again." Kojiro demands irritatedly.

"Well if you two shut the fuck up, maybe I can work better." She retorts, walking back to the seal. "Fuck, it's changed."

"It what?" Kojiro questions, standing from his spot.

"It's changed, now I have to redicipher everything. Thanks a lot, guys." She replies sassily.

"Don't blame us for your lack of skill." Kiyoshi quips flippantly.

"I'll blame you for whatever I please…" She mutters.

"I think you won't unless you want to feed Kubi?" Kiyoshi asks, knowing the answer.

"Kubikiribōchō wouldn't like the taste of me." She retorts, eyeing the new seal.

"Unlike the other swords of the bloody mist, It's not picky." Kiyoshi grins.

During their banter, Kojiro took a seat back in his spot, deciding that she'd eventually figure it out even if it had changed.

"Kiyoshi, leave her be. Go set your traps and block the entrance, that's far more important. I have a feeling the others in the building above heard that explosion." Kojiro says whilst closing his eyes and crossing his legs.

"Well, the tents best be up by the time I finish." Kiyoshi returns, pulling out the seals.

"We can set that up when the time comes for us to sleep, for now, I need to meditate." Kojiro replies.

"You really can be one lazy fuck." Kiyoshi mentions, leaving to set the traps.

* * *

Eight hours later, Kanae had made little progress and the tents had been pitched by a reluctant Kojiro. He found the idea silly, as they were already indoors and had no need for tents, but Kiyoshi had not let up on the need for them. Now he sat in his tent, ignoring the drops of sweat tapping the ground from Kiyoshi's workout. He was barely able to enter a meditative state, it's been multitudes more difficult since the fight with Hideo, and he's not entirely sure why.

"I think I figured out all the countermeasures, now I can work on the actual lock." Kanae mentions offhandedly.

Kiyoshi stops his crunches and walks over to Kanae's side, making no sense of the seals, but hoping to gain a little insight.

"You can read this shit? Looks more like my barf after a night of whiskey." Kiyoshi remarks, confusion taking a hold of his features.

"Well, this pattern is a countermeasure for the explosive, it sets off if you touch any other countermeasure or the wrong part of the lock in the wrong order." Kanae points to the pattern. "This countermeasure alerts-" she was cut off.

"Fuck me this is boring." Kiyoshi states.

"Then leave me be, you smell rank." She quips.

"I do what I want, bitch." Kiyoshi smirks.

"I think you'd like to annoy Kojiro now, he's been quiet for however long it's been since the explosion." She replies, thumbing behind her to the younger brother's tent.

"Nah, annoying you is more than enough fun." Kiyoshi returns, grinning slightly.

"If you want another explosion to destroy the tents and have me start over, I'd suggest you leave me be." She replies, pinching her nose, he really did smell horrid.

"Well, sorry, miss 'I'm shit at my job but won't admit it and will blame it on the others, not myself', I'll leave you be." Kiyoshi concedes.

Kanae continues to study the seal, but the presence of the large man never leaves her side. It irks her more than she wanted, and eventually, she gives in an turns back to him.

"Do you fucking mind?" She asks facetiously.

"Nope." Kiyoshi replies, crossing his arms.

"You're infuriating." She says with apparent irritation.

"That's so kind of you to say." Kiyoshi winks, finally walking off.

Kojiro sighs and exits his tent, his meditation was not progressing as fast as he would like. He strolls over to Kanae and studies the seal lock, grabbing only the very basic strokes.

"You can read this shit? It looks like Kiyoshi's barf after a night of whiskey." Kojiro remarks, crossing his arms.

"He said the same thing." Kanae answers blandly. "Yes, this one is the explosion countermeasure which sets off at the touch of any other countermeasure. This one over here sets off an ear piercing screeching sound if you hit the wrong order of the lock. That one-" she was again cut off.

"Right, well, I couldn't care less. Figure it out without me." Kojiro states, leaving the girls side and walking to Kiyoshi's spot.

Kanae sighs in defeat before returning back to the seal.

"We're going to be here a fucking age aren't we?" Kiyoshi asks his brother as he approaches.

"Aye, doesn't look like that seal was intermediate to me." Kojiro replies, dropping to the ground and beginning a warmup.

"I still can't believe Suna was able to make it, they're so shit at everything!" Kiyoshi bellows, laughing at the thought.

"I think the third Kazekage was decent, but otherwise, they have very poor standards for their shinobi. At least with the Bloody Mist, we were thrown in situations where we grew." Kojiro agrees, standing and stretching.

"You've got that fucking right." Kiyoshi starts to recall his first missions.

As the two reminisced about the Bloody Mist, an explosion from the entrance to the room burst, far more subdued than the trap from before. Ten ANBU stood in the hallway leading down from the building above, and they took action immediately. They body flickered to surround the brothers with eight, and two pinned Kanae to the ground.

"You're in a lot of shit for hurting her." Kojiro says casually, continuing his workout.

Kiyoshi says nothing, his hair flows and changes to a fire red, sclera turning black and pupils flowing to the same color as his hair. Labyrinthian tattoos form on his arms and hands, the only visible part of his body. Black tattoos form around his eyes, bridging his nose and daggering down below the eye itself.

His killing intent started to superheat the air, boiling the scarce liquid found in the room. It began burning the walls, but not the seals themselves. The air turned into a humid haze. Each ANBU sweating so much they could barely hold their weapons to fight. Kanae had passed out near instantly.

"I'm going to tell you once, let her go. Or I'll kill you the slow way. Do as I ask and I'll kill you a little faster." Kiyoshi demands, his voice brokering no argument, unsheathing Kubikiribōchō.

Kojiro whistles and the ANBU attack, ignoring his warning. A mere five seconds pass and all the ANBU lie dead, each with varying wounds and means of death. Blood flooding the room, with guts and piss helping. Kiyoshi had peaked his intent to such a level even the ANBU hesitated for a second too long, allowing Kubikiribōchō to cut them all down. His clothes resembled the time he slaughtered Kiri's rebels, but this time he wasn't satisfied.

"This was not enough." Kiyoshi seethes, begging for more to come.

"Deal with it, you're not going topside to slaughter the village." Kojiro demands, trying to rein his brother in.

"They dared to lay a hand on her, they deserve nothing else!" Kiyoshi roars, fuming.

"While I can understand, now is not the time. You will lose, I promise." Kojiro replies calmly.

Another period of silence occurs, with Kiyoshi finally relenting to his brother's semi-accurate advice. Every one of his markings recedes back into his skin, his hair returning back to its sleek black.

"Can't fucking believe this, I'm turning soft." He grumbles under his breath before walking over to Kanae, only just realizing how intense his desire to protect her is.

"We all do, for certain people." Kojiro answers, going back to his workout.

"You tell her, you'll end up in my storage seals for my master prank." Kiyoshi informs him, grinning maniacally at his own thought.

"Yeah sure, she probably already knows about your protective streak anyway." The younger brother informs.

"Either way, say nothing." He orders, turning serious again.

"I won't." Kojiro promises.

"Good, because I'm short of bodies and yours would do." Kiyoshi switches back to his jovial self.

Kiyoshi kneels to Kanae, daring the dead ANBU to have left a mark on her. In the end, he only found a bruise on her face from the pushdown. He sighs and talks to his brother over his shoulder.

"You still got the weak person aid thingy?" Kiyoshi asks his brother.

"Aye, it's in my tent." Kojiro answers.

"Toss me it." Kiyoshi requests, holding his hand out behind him.

"Fine." Kojiro acquiesces, moving to his tent and rummaging through.

When he finds the metal box, he tosses it out of the tent over his shoulder, landing perfectly in Kiyoshi's palm. He opens the box and looks around for a syringe. He finds five different syringes next to each other in a compartment and grabs one at random. Just as he was about to stab it into Kanae's neck, Kojiro stops him, earning a glare from the older brother.

"What the fucks wrong?" Kiyoshi questions.

"That's not the right syringe, that one supplements chakra exhaustion." He points out, then picks up the longest syringe and places it in Kiyoshi's hand. "That one will wake her."

"Why the fuck do people carry such shit, if you run out of chakra, are you really worth saving?" He says rhetorically, stabbing the syringe into Kanae's neck.

"Sometimes, remember our best friend from Konoha?" Kojiro asks.

"Who? The Hokage we pissed off to levels if I can't believe? Or the silver-haired dog person?" Kiyoshi wonders.

"The dog. He's been known to come back from missions with his chakra totally famished, something about not being a native user of his eye." Kojiro informs, watching the groggy genin wake.

"Hm, my statement stands, if he runs out, then he's useless." Kiyoshi reasons.

"Our third mission as hunter-nin, you remember that?" Kojiro asks with a glint in his eye.

"Fuck off, we don't count." Kiyoshi waves off.

Once Kanae had come to her senses she bolted upright, making her woozy again, which she shrugged off.

"What happened?" She asks Kiyoshi.

"Stuff, then things, then death. So a good day." Kiyoshi jokes, eyeing Kojiro to make sure his brother keeps his mouth shut.

"A lot of blood, I think that's going to coagulate soon. Gonna smell horrid." Kojiro points out.

"Well since as I made the mess, you should clean it, brother dearest." Kiyoshi winks, holding back his laugh.

"Do you know how many times I've cleaned your messes?" Kojiro asks rhetorically.

"It's good practice, makes you hireable. Besides one day Kanae will have to clean up after you." Kiyoshi fires back.

"What do you mean, 'one day'?" Kanae asks. "I thought I was heading back to Konoha after this."

"Ah, that. Kojiro lied, he's such a cunt isn't he?" Kiyoshi can't keep his laughter back any longer.

"Actually, Kiyoshi wants you as an apprentice. He thinks he's a better teacher than some fuck from Konoha who's barely around." Kojiro points out, much to Kiyoshi's annoyance.

"Brother, I hope you enjoying hanging from Kiri you fuck." Kiyoshi seethes.

Kojiro shrugs and walks away, leaving the two alone.

"You want me as an apprentice? A Konoha kunoichi, a place known to rival Kiri? Why?" She asks, ignoring the threat Kiyoshi sent to his brother.

"Because you're better than that Konoha trash, you deserve someone to teach you right. To mold you into a kunoichi of note, not a footnote of the village." Kiyoshi finally admits.

"What if I don't want to be taught your way? The Bloody Mist has only ever been fascinating from afar." Kanae returns.

"Then you are left in the wilds, alone." Kiyoshi answers, with no hint of a lie.

Kojiro laughs quietly from his spot, knowing his brother wouldn't uphold that, but he says nothing.

"I don't know what to say…" The young girl replies, lowering her gaze in thought.

"Answer truthfully, I don't care for lies." Kiyoshi voices.

"I… I'd miss my family." She answers, a tear forming in her eye.

"I can change that for you if you'd like." Kiyoshi informs her.

"W-what? No, please. Leave my family alone, I'll do it!" Kanae pleads, a tear dripping from its forming.

"I never said I would kill them, no need to get so emotional. I was offering to move them to wherever we settle. Fucking hell." Kiyoshi turns jovial again.

"Oh… that would be nice." Kanae says softly.

"Either way, forget all your attachments, answer for yourself. Remember my first lecture." Kiyoshi demands, a final time.

Kanae thinks for a moment before deciding on a response, one she might learn to regret later.

"You're a great shinobi, you're already in the history books back in Konoha. Though not much is said, very few have lived to tell their stories of you. It would be an honor to be taught by you if I had no attachments to Konoha. While I don't quite believe in the 'Will of Fire', it's still my home." She says somewhat defiantly.

"Kiri is my home, and yet I've gone against it because it was in my best interest to," Kiyoshi states, holding his hand out. "Give me your headband, if you truly accept my offer."

Kanae takes off her hitai-ate and stares at the symbol of the Leaf. A mix of emotions run through her head, of her family, of her shishou, of the one time she met Lord Third. Then her mind darts to her recent memories, the ones she remembers of the brothers talking at night when they thought she couldn't hear them.

More than once she's heard of Kiyoshi's want to protect her, more than once she's seen it in action. While he is a ruthless person, he does seem to care about her. More than her current shishou. Kojiro is kind and answers questions Kiyoshi would avoid. It's not a bad idea, she's seen how strong the brothers are, though she's sure they've barely shown her the surface. She'd be safe, and she would learn a lot. Plus the Ocelot, she feels the need to pet it, a lot.

She looks at the headband intensely, barely registering Kojiro's walk to his brother's side. When she looks up at the two, Kiyoshi's face is stern, but Kojiro has a smile. He knows the choice she's about to make. She reaches out and hands the hitai-ate to Kiyoshi, much to his satisfaction.

"Good choice, now brother, give her a kunai." Kiyoshi orders, gripping the headband tightly in front of her.

Kanae takes the kunai from the outstretched hand of the younger brother and looks apprehensively at her new Shishou.

"Why?" She asks.

"Prove your loyalty to us." Kiyoshi demands, motioning with his head to Kojiro's hitai-ate on his belt.

She sees the strikethrough on the headband and gulps, there would be no turning back now. Kanae steels her nerves and slashes as hard as she dared across the Konoha standard headband, giving it a deep cut. She looks at her handiwork and feels some regret.

I'll be back one day. She thinks. Hopefully still on good terms.

"Good," Kiyoshi stands, holding her headband up to his left flank. "Welcome to the Bloody Mist." The words leave him as he drops the headband into the pool of blood at their feet, letting it sink.

The new missing-nin watches as the blood swallows her headband before looking back at her Shishou.

"I hope this means I'm getting a new cloth for the thing, I hate crusty blood." She shivers in exaggeration.

"For now, make do, if you can kill someone for theirs, then fine." Kiyoshi starts, before pulling out a few seals.

"Wait! Don't drop bodies on me again!" She says, still not recognizing the dead bodies around her.

"Look around you! You're bathing in the blood of the dead, but this is not a dead body, it's your new gear." Kiyoshi hands her the seals, a sense of pride radiating his aura.

She looks at the seal apprehensively.

"Are you sure? You promised a tent last time." Kanae remembers.

"Look at the seal, it's Kiri made. I only ever use them for gear or fish. So it might be fish, fair warning. That village had a whole fuckton of fish lying around." Kiyoshi points out, as Kojiro inwardly facepalms.

Kanae inspects the seal properly, finding his words to be truthful. She pours a small amount of chakra into the seal, and a shinobi standard kit falls to her lap, along with a small first aid kit. She smiles at the thought of finally having worthwhile tools. She opens the kit and her smile fades as the kunai are completely different to what she's used to. An L-shaped blade instead of the diamond she was used to from Konoha.

"These are the wrong kunai." She points out.

"You're of the Bloody Mist now, these are the only kunai we use, not that Konoha shit. Learn to use them, and do so quickly." Kiyoshi lectures.

"Right… well, I'd best get back to the seal then." Kanae says, standing and grabbing her blood-soaked headband.

"Lastly, pick a weapon. One you'll master along with the jutsu we'll teach you." Kiyoshi informs her.

"We'll teach?" Kojiro questions.

"You and I both have different jutsu, some she could do to learn." Kiyoshi states truthfully.

"Fair enough." Kojiro acquiesces.

"Any weapon? There's a lot out there…" Kanae thinks aloud.

"Did. I. Fucking. Stutter?" Kiyoshi questions her.

"I think you may have, yes." Kojiro replies happily.

"Brother, I'll hang you in Mei's office I swear." The older brother promises, moaning slightly.

Kojiro shrugs with a smile. Kanae still seems deep in thought, before remembering her Shishou's summons. Claws would be an interesting weapon to learn.

"Can I learn how to use claws?" She asks, thinking about three-pronged metal claws jutting from a glove.

"You're not a fucking bear!" Kiyoshi shouts at her, missing the mark completely.

"Huh? I'm talking about metal claws attached to a pair of gloves, how does that remind you of a bear?" She queries, dumbfounded.

"He had long fucking claws! Either way, if that's what you want, you'd best learn to master them." Kiyoshi affirms.

"I will, I promise, Shishou." Kanae promises.

"It's Kiyoshi, I hate that formal crap." He returns quickly.

"Alright, Kiyoshi." She says with a wink.

"I'm definitely putting bodies in your tent tonight. Think of it as a right of passage." Kiyoshi remarks, with a wink of his own.

Kanae shivers, then remembers the bodies around her and immediately stops. She hates that she's grown accustomed to the sight of viscera. The young apprentice sighs and returns to studying the seal. Kiyoshi and Kojiro go to their respective tasks of sealing the doorway and cleaning the blood around them. All in all, Kiyoshi felt much happier. Almost as happy as killing Hideo had made him.


	16. Chapter Fifteen: Hot Springs

A/N: So, this chapter was written a long time ago, and in fact we're up to chapter 23 being written. We have a stockpile saved up, but we ended up deciding to get a beta for this story, mainly because we needed a third pair of eyes that would look at our work critically. That being said, we'd like more reviews, the few we've gotten help with our writing, so go ahead and critique us, good or bad. - One & Two

* * *

TangentOne: Two, do you know why this chapter took so long?

TangentTwo: Uh... the Almighty Tangent said something about a 'Beta', whatever the fuck that is.

TangentOne: A 'Beta' you say? Sounds a bit fancy, if a little weak.

TangentTwo: Fake news, Beta's are fantastic. I use them all the time!

TangentOne: I thought you didn't know what a Beta was.

TangentTwo: I plead the fifth!

* * *

Four days had passed since then. Many times the Suna ANBU had come down to fight the brothers, and every time they failed. Kojiro wondered why the Kazekage himself had not come, given their situation in the vault, and had determined that the Kage was otherwise engaged with different matters. Kiyoshi had taken Kanae's promise seriously, every time she stopped her study for a break, he taught her their philosophy and taijutsu.

During the nights, Kojiro would have the first shift, and Kiyoshi would have the second. Both only getting four hours of sleep a night which, for trained hunter-nin, was plenty. It was on the fifth day that Kanae had finally made a breakthrough.

"I think I have it." Kanae says worriedly, as she stares with a degree of uncertainty at her work.

Nonetheless, both brothers look up from their subdued taijutsu spar with serious expressions over toward the girl.

"Are you sure?" Kojiro asks her as he goes to kneel by her side.

"I'm... half sure." Kanae answers biting the inside of her cheek.

"Fucking finally!" Kiyoshi bellows, relief flooding his figure as he walks to the side of his apprentice and readies himself for anything. "Fuck me this was the worst fucking trip ever. Open the fucking door!"

"She hasn't unlocked it yet." Kojiro points out, drawing his ninjato and tanto.

"She will," He replied easily. "If not, then that just means quadrupled training." Kiyoshi grins maniacally as Kanae look at him with a pale face.

"Harsh," The younger brother said with a chuckle as he turned to stare at Kanae. "Go on then, Kanae. If it blows up in your face again, Kiyoshi will save you." Kojiro promises.

"Now I _have_ to save her." Kiyoshi mentions, his grin fading.

The beige haired girl rolled her eyes exasperatedly at the two brothers. "Thanks for the confidence boost." She takes a deep breath as her pink eyes narrowed in concentration. "Here I go." She stretches her hand out towards the key and begins the process of unlocking the vault.

Running her index and middle fingers on the the first stage of the key, she pushes a steady stream of chakra through them and onto the pattern of ink needed to unlock the vault. In doing so, her fingers trailed and ended at the bottom left corner and pushed a little bit more chakra into it. After doing this, she brought her other hand up and placed it on the adjacent corner and placed her thumb onto, coursing chakra onto it as well. After five seconds, she took both hands off of it and watched it, with a bated breath at the cue for the next stage.

At first, nothing happened, causing her to panic a little bit when it doesn't react with a sound or any other kind of cue. However, just before she could freak out fully,. it started to glow faintly. One worry gone, but a new one arisen, Kanae's chest tightens as the stress builds and weighs on her shoulder. One screw up and she'd have to start all over and then Kiyoshi would probably be mad and she would disappoint him.

Swallowing thickly as the implications took place within her mind, she then uses a quick hand seal, and pours a small amount of yin-natured chakra into the second stage, and it glows faintly as well. A small smile takes place and she decided to move on to the third stage. Which was honestly, kind of tricky, since she needed the blood of a Suna shinobi, or at least that's what it described. Whether the ANBU's blood would be enough, she wasn't sure.

She took off her headband, scrapes some blood onto her palm and pushes the blood into the third stage, which it greedily sucks in. The third stage glows faintly and she gave a sigh of relief, thankful that it was enough. The large door made a clicking sound, and swung inward, revealing an open area with walls made of a dark iron and lined with seal infused torches. Within the Vault the floor was filled with a plethora of extremely expensive items. Kojiro pushes past her and enters the vault, gathering chakra to infuse in his blade. It gives off a small amount of light, just enough to see whatever he's pointing it at. He searches the goods, golden chalices, exquisite rugs, but most importantly, shinobi tools.

The heterochromatic teen's eyes stop on a sword roughly the size of a ninjato, curved slightly and crafted in the same L-shape their Bloody Mist kunai are. He knelt to it and pulses a wave of chakra into it, watching the sword react and accepting the chakra greedily. He had then decided to experiment a little and started to push water-natured chakra into it. He watched in surprise as the blade was covered in a thin coat of water. Kojiro smiles and picks the blade up, sheathing it in his previous ninjato's spot, then continues to look around.

He hears Kiyoshi walk to the doorway, and senses him peering in.

"You find the stupid rod?" Kiyoshi asks, stopping at his side.

"I found a new toy, but not the rod," Kojiro replies, looking over the pile of shinobi gear with a critical eye before he caught something in the far corner. "Is that it?" He then points to a silver banded wand amongst some swords, fuuma shuriken and kusarigamas. With his chakra sensory ability he is able to feel a multitude of different chakra types layered in it's old frame.

He heard a scoff from behind him as he heard his brother's footsteps echoing dully off the floors. "It's the only thing in this shithole that looks like it." Kiyoshi admits, walking over to the rod.

Kiyoshi picks up the rod, but at his grip it shocks him. He drops the rod and spits bloody murder at the Lightning Daimyo's gift as he waves his hand to get rid of the frayed nerves all the while glaring at the stupid thing.

"Careful there, brother. It seems to dislike you." Kojiro jokes, walking over and wrapping it in his cloak before picking it up.

"Stupid fucking rod, that's it, I'm looting this vault." Kiyoshi shouts angrily, pulling out a bunch of storage seals. "Kanae, get in here, we've got looting to do!"

Kanae walks to Kiyoshi's side, eyeing the mountain of expensive items with a glint in her eye.

"You'd best hurry," Kojiro informs them, leaning on the vault's door so it won't shut. "I don't want to be here for long. Water is too far away."

"We're robbing these cunts blind." Kiyoshi shares his apprentices glint.

The two grab anything that looks even remotely expensive, stuffing seals full of useless junk they'd be hard pressed to sell except to certain collectors. Kiyoshi looks at a golden chalice with a hungry grin, and picks it up, hanging it from his belt. Ten minutes later, all the seals Kiyoshi had brought out were full of stuff they had no need for. Once they finally finish and exit the vault, The huge door closes behind all three of them and the seal on the door changed its pattern once more. And, judging from the looks of it, would probably take at least a month to crack.

They pack their tents and gear quickly, shoving them in their respective scrolls and left the same way they entered eager to get out of the area and hungry for the huge profit they would make from all the stuff they gathered. They leave quickly and discreetly to avoid any and all likely detection from the Suna nin, and after making it outside Suna's walls, both brothers quickly enter heaven path, alerting any competent (or even the untrained really) sensor in a five mile radius and soon the village seemed to come alive with energy. Kiyoshi hurriedly throws Kanae over his shoulder and bolts towards the Land of Rivers, following a slightly ahead Kojiro.

It's safe to say that they would _not_ be welcome back for quite some time.

* * *

After about two days of nonstop running, the trio passes their old skirmish site and found some of the bodies from the previous encounter to be missing. Most likely buried under sand after all the time they were away. However, despite the nostalgia, they don't stop to reminisce and take a break. They continue on until they are fatigued, stopping only just on the brink of the Land of Hot Water borders. Which, running for two days straight would do to a person, they were all keen on finally being able to eat and rest from the long journey.

Kiyoshi sets the border of the camp, placing it just by a stream, whilst Kojiro pitches his and his brothers tent. Kanae pitches her own, and looks over her shoulder at the wrapped up rod with a raised eyebrow when she finishes the last stake needed to secure the tent down to the ground.

"What's with the rod, anyways?" Kanae asks with a hint of anger. "Is that all really what we went for? What you kidnapped me for?".

"Yep, pretty much." Kojiro answers intelligently, looking back to the rod.

"It's a piece of shit I agree." Kiyoshi says casually before sighing heavily. "But the Raikage wanted it, and he's paying me and my brother a fuckton for it."

"Are you being fucking serious?" The young girl demands irately, stomping her foot. "You took me from my content life, made me into something I never wanted to be, all for a fucking rod?" Kanae finishes her rant with a huff and crossed arms rants, still somewhat annoyed at her position. She glares heatedly at the silver banded object. "Does it even do anything?"

"No fucking clue." Kojiro responds, looking at the young girl with an amused face.

"It's worth a lot, and that's enough for us." Kiyoshi mirrors his brothers amused look, ignoring Kanae's slight regression.

She scoffs, unamused by the brothers. She looks around for a tree to lean against, one presumably far away from the two that are the source of her ire. When she finally finds one and goes over to it and sits with her back to it and pouts.

"Well I was going to let you tag along when I went to a hot spring, but seeing as you've started acting like a little wimp, you can sit here and cry." The older brother quips, waiting for her rebuttal.

Kanae's eyes widen at that tidbit of info. "Wait, don't be hasty, Kiyoshi. Take me with you, I haven't had a decent wash since before we went to Suna." She says quickly in order to claw her way back into Kiyoshi's good graces.

"None of us have actually," Kojiro pipes up, smiling at the two bickering. "I think I'll come with you as well."

"Ah, then you'll have to watch the camp Kanae." Kiyoshi says wickedly, revelling in the paling of the girls face.

"Aye, there's a stream you can wash in just fine, right there." The younger brother points to the stream. "Just make sure you wash down stream, I don't want to come back to drink water you've bathed in."

"No, take me with you! Please!" Kanae begins to beg, much to the delight of the brothers.

"Seeing as you've asked so nicely, I suppose I can leave Komori in charge of the camp." Kojiro says, looking to his brother for approval.

"Hm, Kanae, if you'll do my washing and cleaning for the next month, you can tag along." Kiyoshi offers her, knowing she'll accept.

Even if she didn't, she'd be doing it anyway, this is just a convenient excuse for her to start.

"I'll do it. Hot spring here we come!" Kanae shouts with joy, a fist of excitement pumped in the air.

Kojiro chuckles as his brother laughs at her childish display. He then bites down on his thumb just hard enough to draw blood before quickly shooting through hand seals and slamming his palm on the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Kojiro exclaims, and a flower pattern of seals extends around his palm on the ground.

There was a huge cloud of smoke that blinded everyone's sight and causing everyone to cough. It was a few seconds the smoke finally cleared and their sight returns. Kanae's eyes pans around the camp area with a confused look. "Where's-" She suddenly shrieks when she saw a bat, most likely Komori, whom had popped out of the shadows, clinging onto a tree nearby, upside down. She calmed her racing heart down and points weakly at the creature. "Nevermind..."

He studies the girl for a bit before looking towards his summoner. "Yes, Kojiro-san?" He asks politely his voice slightly raspy and yet screechy at the same time.

"Do you mind watching over the camp while we head to a hot spring? We've been in Suna and the Land of Rivers the past three and a half months without a bath." Kojiro explains.

"I don't mind at all, when shall I expect your return?" Komori, again, asks politely.

Kojiro looks toward Kiyoshi, nodding his head toward Komori as if to tell him to provide an answer.

"A time." Kiyoshi grins, knowing Komori isn't that fond of him.

"I will expect you in 'a time', then." Komori retorts losing it's polite tone, shuffling his leathery wings slightly.

Kanae, after the initial shock, is fascinated by the large bat, but doesn't feel the need to pet it. If anything she's more interested in learning from him, he gives off an aura of knowledge and authority over power and brutality. Who knows what that thing knows!

"Probably won't be gone longer than thirty hours, Komori." Kojiro responds, ignoring his brother and goes over and pets the bats head.

"Very well, take your time." He says, shutting his eyes to the world.

Kojiro turns to the other two, and nods toward them before taking off to the nearest hot spring, which he found quickly. The two others followed him closely, Kanae finally running on her own for a change, as they weren't speeding in heaven path. They had to hold a slow pace, but neither senior shinobi minded, it had been awhile since their last leisurely run.

A looming elegant building appeared just out of the treeline they came out of. It had a traditional look to it, with oaken exterior walls, and a reddish orange tiled roof. It has about four floors to it and the bustling nature of other people going in and out of it showed its popularity. Roses and tulips amongst other different aromatic flower borders the dirt road off to their far right and they could see three others in different and adjacent directions of each other. Merging onto the dirt path with others (whom had recoiled from their combined stench). After making it to the front door, they waited in the short line of eight people before it was their turn.

The receptionist smiles as the trio made their way to his desk, though his face quickly turns to a frown when he smells the air around them. He quickly goes through the options they offer to them with barely restrained disgust in his tone and Kojiro, deciding to ignore him, chooses a one-night stay with two baths. Kiyoshi reluctantly paid the rude man, as Kojiro had no cash on him and Kanae never carried her wallet with her (which meant she didn't have it on her when they took her). They were escorted to their room (rather spacious room with a mini kitchen two beds, a small table, and a couch on the wall adjacent to the beds), and then were quickly escorted to the public bath, and they entered the mixed bath section, much to the embarrassment of Kanae.

They quickly wash themselves in their separate baths, scrubbing off month old blood and mud from their trek, none of it their own. They pop their clothes in the 'to wash' bin that the bath's staff would take care of that is situated right next to the door. Kojiro and Kanae wrap themselves in towels, while Kiyoshi brazenly throws his towel over his shoulder, garnering an eye roll from both Kanae and Kojiro. They enter the bath through the sliding door, and stopped cold to a sight the brothers would not have expected.

Nii Yugito, Kumo jinchuriki and jonin, was relaxing on the far side despite being the only other person in the bath. She seemed peaceful and regal in her mannerisms, seeming to enjoy her time she had to herself. However, Kiyoshi didn't care one bit about her personal time.

"Holy shit, is that Yugito?" Kiyoshi exclaims with a mocking tone to add onto his surprise. "It is! Yugito, what's the fucking chances?" He then walks across the hot spring to stand in front of the now irate blonde jinchuriki.

Yugito's eyebrows crease in irritation, and her forehead shows aging lines at the most irritating voice. Her eyes open to find Kiyoshi standing above her, bravely producing his member in her face. He was smiling like an idiot, and was hoping for a pleased response. Too bad for him.

"Did you get the rod?" She asks blandly, ignoring the pleasantries completely.

It had been a long three months, with the change of leadership in two major villages, she was battered with intelligence gathering missions. Not to even forget the fact that she had to deal with Bee and A's shenanigans during every other debriefing she had to undertake. Needless to say, she did _not_ appreciate the stress this missing-nin brought her.

"All work and no play makes you a dull girl." Kiyoshi winks, sinking into the hot spring and sitting next to her, much to her dismay.

In the background, Kanae looks at Kojiro with a quizzical look, nonverbally asking the obvious question. Kojiro just shrugs with a chuckle and sits down in the hot spring nearest the changing room. Kanae follows Kiyoshi and sits next to him as the two older shinobi conversed.

"Answer the question." She growls angrily before shutting her eyes again. "I'm not happy with you slacking if you haven't gotten it."

"I've got it, it's safe." Kiyoshi answers back, rather bored of work.

"Really? Where is it?" She asks, a pleased tone making its way to her voice.

"Kojiro's summon has it. So it's safer than you'd think." Kiyoshi waves his hand nonchalantly as if to ward off any other question she might have..

Kojiro raises an eyebrow that Yugito does not miss, and quickly regains his composure. It had been awhile since he needed to keep still in an interrogation. Though, when it had turned into one, he had no clue. Maybe he should just chalk it up to the mysteries of women or whatever.

"Why did you raise your eyebrow, Kojiro?" She calls across the spring, causing the young man to blink at her.

"Just pleased Kiyoshi was telling the truth for once, even if he took all the credit." Kojiro responds with a shrug.

"I never fucking lie! And, well, technically I did everything." Kiyoshi shouts puffing his chest out with pride and his head swelling with his ego.

"Hey!" Kanae pouts, glaring at Kiyoshi. "I unlocked the fucking vault, you liar!"

"And who are you, little one?" The blonde Kumo-ninasks the just barely teenage child with a raised eyebrow of her own.

"I'm Kanae, Kiyoshi's apprentice." Kanae admits, partly proud and somewhat dejected.

"I wasn't aware you had an apprentice, Kiyoshi." Yugito mentions with a hint of respect as she looked over at the messy haired man.

"I saw her talent and had to make sure she was trained by the best." Kiyoshi answers haughtily, brimming with pride.

"I see." Yugito says with a satisfied tone to her voice before returning to her annoyed tone. "Well if you have the rod, get out of here and go back to the Raikage, he's been waiting eagerly for it."

"Look, Yugito, I've not bathed properly since I left Kumo. So you can kindly fuck off on that note. I'm staying here to rest, A will get his rod, I assure you." Kiyoshi speaks with the tone of a shinobi.

Yugito shoots a glare towards him, one that makes Kanae flinch. Kiyoshi however mentally shrugs it off, he'll get the rod one way or the other. With his piece said, the conversation dies down to Kanae and Yugito bonding, leaving the brothers out of the conversation. As it stood, Kanae was happy to finally have another woman to talk to, even if she was technically an enemy.

An hour later, Kojiro leaves the bath, excusing himself and heading to bed. Just as he was making towards the elevator that would bring him up to their room on the second floor, he banked a hard right and headed towards a different room so he could sneak out. However, He wasn't actually heading to bed. No, the younger of the two heterochromatic brothers was going back to the camp to check up on the rod, which he passed as a message to Kiyoshi through subtle hand signals. Kiyoshi had moved next to his brother before he left, tired of being left out of the girls conversation.

He stared intently at the females, trying to listen into their conversation. Eventually, Yugito gets annoyed and sparks up a conversation.

"A picture will last longer, Kiyoshi." Yugito comments, creasing her eyebrows.

"Let me get a camera and you can do some poses for me." Kiyoshi quips back, sending her a wink and smirking at her triumphantly.

"Very funny," She glares at Kiyoshi before asking with a moderate amount of sass, "what do you want?"

"Those photos, now that you gave me the idea. Other then that, erm, I really shouldn't mention the other around kids." Kiyoshi winks again, grinning madly.

Yugito scoffs, finding the conversation distasteful. Though, as she thought about it, he was a well built man. She pushes the thought from her mind and returns to her conversation with Kanae, intrigued in the history of the girl. She finally got around to asking it, and Kanae looks to Kiyoshi as if to ask if she was allowed to talk about it. Kiyoshi rubs his nose and nods, ordering her only to tell half of the story.

Kanae accepts and recounts everything past Kiyoshi and Kojiro grabbing the seal books for her. The way she explained coming upon them was a Kunoichi from Konoha too deep into the Land of the Rivers for her own good. As she says anything that wasn't premeditated, Yugito looks at Kiyoshi out of the corner of her eye, which the man does not miss. When Kanae finishes her recount of the story, her face looks a little flushed and she excuses herself. Yugito looks to Kiyoshi when his new apprentice exits.

"That wasn't the whole truth, what did you two keep from me?" The woman asks quizzically, expecting a non-answer.

Kiyoshi stands and strides over to Yugito, sitting beside her, flashing her as only he would.

"It wasn't eh? You could say that." Kiyoshi returns, knowing she'll press him either way and he was going to enjoy it.

"Should I know?" Yugito questions, ignoring the blatant sexual harassment.

"Probably not, but you want to know, don't you?" Kiyoshi prods.

"If it's going to get you to stay longer, no." Yugito answers.

"Well, one thing would, but I doubt you'd indulge me. If you can ask nicely I'll tell you everything, but it can't be relayed to anyone at all. Not even A." Kiyoshi brokers with her.

"I can't promise that, you know how reports are. I either tell him everything, or he notices something is missing and asks about it anyway." Yugito replies disheartened.

"Then have him ask me, I doubt he'll try anything with me, and you'll get to keep your position." Kiyoshi barters, knowing how important her job is to her.

"I suppose I can do that." The two tailed jinchuuriki replies reluctantly before sighing and looked over at him with a resolute look. "Fine, tell me everything you want." She asks as nice as possible for her, hoping it would show how serious it was for her.

Kiyoshi relents, and accepts that as a nice way to ask. He tells her everything about the young kunoichi that he's garnered so far, and how they met. It was shocking to the blonde, but she kept quiet during his recounting of the tale.

"That's about it, anyway, the springs lost my interest. I'm off to bed." Kiyoshi finishes, picking himself up and covering himself, walking out of the spring.

Yugito watches as he leaves, thinking on how he kept his word twice over. They had even gotten the rod back from Suna, though they didn't seem to know the Kazekage was dead and the new Hokage was Senju Tsunade of the Sannin. If they ask A about it, she's sure he would tell them, though somehow she doubts they care enough.

* * *

After about two weeks, Kiyoshi and Kojiro find themselves standing in front of A, the Raikage, for a second time this year. Though the only difference this time around was that they had completed the mission he issued, and he was waiting patiently for their report. Kanae stood just behind Kiyoshi and to the right, effectively between him and Kojiro. A defensive measure that the two had set up in case things would go south.

"We got the rod, Lord Fourth." Kojiro says, throwing the wrapped up utensil towards the large man, who grabs it straight out of the air.

A unwraps the cloak and inspects it before turning back to the Shinobi in front of him. For a couple of minutes he gives them a critical eye, which causes Kanae to fidget a bit and caused the brother's to subtly shift a little more closely to the younger girl.

"I don't care how you did it," The burly brown skinned man started, his voice gruff and baritone like. He then gives a small chaste smile. "Thank you for retrieving this. Mabui, gather their pay." A orders his aide, who struts off to a drawer in the back, drawing Kiyoshi's eyes for all of two seconds.

"We'll be out of your hair in no time, Lord Fourth." Kojiro continues, eyeing the Raikage with a pleased look. No doubt this was going smoothly. Now all that was left was for the pay and hopefully Kiyoshi could keep his mouth shut so they wouldn't have to have _another_ angry kage after them.

Mabui brings a small scroll from the drawer and hands it to the younger brother, who checks the contents before nodding, pleased.

"Yugito has informed me that you would like to explain some things, Kiyoshi," A looks to the older man. "To that end, you two can leave." He points to Kojiro and Yugito.

"Sure, I don't really care how we do it." Kiyoshi admits, looking to Kojiro.

Kojiro gives his brother an odd look before being ushered out of the room by Yugito, who closes the door as they exit. She looks to Kojiro and gives a small smile of reassurance before leaning on the wall.

Back in the office, Kiyoshi recounts to the Raikage all that he knows of his apprentice, if only to keep his word. A accepts the knowledge, understanding that if the rod is ever proved to be in his possession it would be bad for Konoha. Kiyoshi tactfully left out the part of none of them being alive to recount the tale, as he wasn't one hundred percent sure that was the case.

As he finished, A instructed Mabui to bring Yugito and Kojiro back in, which she does. Once back in their original position, A clears his throat.

"You two have proven useful, far more useful than I would have thought." A gives them an appraising look as he folds his muscular arms across his chest. "No one I've ever given that mission to before had even gotten as close as you did. So, to every person in the room as a witness, I thank you. On the same note, I wish to offer you a deal." A finishes explaining, waiting for one of them to agree to hear it.

"And that deal is?" Kojiro asks thoughtfully, forgetting the rank difference between the two shinobi for a moment.

"I want you two to work for Kumo under the table, exclusively." A offers with a narrowed look in his dark eyes, noting the disrespect but also looking past it for the moment.

Kiyoshi raises an eyebrow in curiosity wondering what was up before he starts to grin slightly. Kojiro mirrors his brother's look, his mismatched eyes alight with glee. Kanae, just looks on with a inquiring look in her eyes. Yugito notices their look and can already tell what they're thinking.

"What are the benefits of our exclusive… arrangement?" Kojiro asks.

"You can come and go as you please in Kumo, no need for an escort. You'll get a shinobi discount in all our stores, just as our own shinobi would. Officially, we can't be seen helping you, and you'd be on your own everytime you leave. However, while you're in Kumo, I can guarantee you will be safe." A lists off with a smirk, he knows the offer is exceptional for the missing-nin.

"Unfortunately, that's not enough." Kojiro returns sadly. "Though, if you add a signing bonus… I don't see why not."

The Raikage temples his arms and leans back in his chair, laughing heartily.

"You are one hell of a cheap bastard, aren't you? When I offered you the mission you were all hung up on formalities, now that you've completed it, you're as open as a book. Fine, what's the amount you want as a 'signing bonus'?" A demands after scowling, his demeanor daring the younger brother to say something outrageous.

"Twenty five million." Kojiro replies, not missing a beat.

A stares at the younger boy for a second, mirth gone from his lips as they thinned. He weighed the pros and cons of giving away so much for only two nin. Though when he realized who the ninja were he deduced it was worth it. "Done, Mabui, you know where to get it." A says, standing and moving to shake the brothers hands.

He grasps Kojiro's hand in a very firm grip, and shakes hard, grinning at the prospect of the two working for him. He repeats the process with Kiyoshi, and pats Kanae on the head once. Once he had finished, Mabui was standing to the side holding out another scroll which Kiyoshi takes and pockets. He grins at his brother before slapping Kanae on the back, making her stumble and face plant on the floor.

"Well done, you've earned a new lesson. It involves getting kicked into a tree again. You best look forward to it." Kiyoshi grins, nodding to her to show his inner feelings.

Kanae blushes as she stands, but just as she regains her feet, Kojiro slaps her on the back, making her fall again.

"You made me money, good job kid." Kojiro praises with a smile.

She groans on the floor before standing, and all of the older shinobi in the room stifle a laugh at her expense. Even Yugito can't hide hers. Kanae had sufficiently turned pink as she regained her feet.

"Alright, is there anything else you two need while you're here?" The large Raikage grunts at the brothers.

"Yugito?" Kiyoshi winks, watching her turn red.

"What about her?" A misses the mark entirely, though you could tell by the look in his eyes that it was anything but.

"I'd like _her_." Kiyoshi quips, stifling a laugh, barely as the Raikage played along.

"To do..?" A continues with a wave of his hand, much to Yugito's chagrin.

"No, I'd like _her_." Kiyoshi repeats himself, adding emphasis.

"Oh…" A drags out in a knowing manner. "Well, that's not up to me." He replies with a wink, effectively giving his approval.

Kiyoshi winks back, looking at Yugito in a way that could only be described as, 'come along now, you're mine'. She continues to stay stock still, but glares at him with a completely red face.

"We'll take our leave now, Lord Fourth." Kojiro says, shaking his head with a smile as he grabs his brother's arm and begins walking out of the room, Kanae following shortly behind.

"But I'm not done messing with her!" Kiyoshi belows as Kojiro drags him out of the office.

The Kumo shinobi watch the scene as it unfolds with barely contained laughter and amused looks, all at Yugito's expense. The door closes behind them and A grunts to himself once they leave. Yugito tries to exit the room through the open window, but find her superiors grip on her arm, effectively stopping her.

"What was that all about, Yugito?" A asks, with a raised eyebrow.

"It was nothing, Lord Fourth. He just doesn't know when to shut up." Yugito offers, trying to escape this conversation one way or another.

"Well, he seems like a good choice." The burly man replies, letting go of the young woman and allowing her to leave.

The blonde jinchuuriki blushes something fierce before escaping through the window and bolting across the village rooftops. Hoping Kiyoshi trips onto his face and breaks his nose. Or his neck. Yes, his neck was better.

A just watched the young jinchuuriki hop the building's with a shaking head. "Why do ninjas always use a window when there's a Freaking DOOR!" A smashed his desk at the prospect.

There was a brief moment of silence before a feminine voice echoed throughout the window.

"...I'll get the woodshop to make another desk."

"Thank you, Mabui…"


End file.
